Kingdom of Midgard
by EmeraldRoseQuartz
Summary: Astrid has chosen her path, and Loki finally has a kingdom to call his own - Midgard, formerly known as Earth. But now that he has it, what will he have to do to keep it? And how will it affect those who helped him get there?
1. Chapter 1 - Oath

**Ladies and Gentlemen, I am SO EXCITED to bring you the sequel to In One Moment - KINGDOM OF MIDGARD. The continuing adventures and misadventures of Loki and Astrid continue! I hope you enjoy, as always. And I've noticed that comments make me write faster. :P Onward!**

**\- Rose**

"_My lord, Loki's invasion was a success. He has conquered the Earth, and he is in possession of the tesseract."_

"_Excellent," The Mad Titan sat straight on his throne, golden armor shining in the dim light of the stars in the void. "It seems our fallen prince was as effective as he claimed…"_

"_He allied with a group of _humans." _the Other hissed. "The Chitauri were formidable, but he managed to use the humans' limited technology and cultural strife to achieve stability following the attack, without imprisoning or destroying the entire species."_

"_Interesting...this endeavor is proving to be more fascinating than I had anticipated. Enslaving the planet would have been the easiest path by far. I wonder why he chose allegiance over destruction."_

_Thanos looked out into the stars, considering his ally's strategy. Regardless of whether the conquest was a failure or a success in the long run, he would learn much by letting it play out. Out of sheer curiosity, he decided then to let this experiment with Loki continue. _

"_Shall I have him return what you gave him? Shall we recall the Chitauri?"_

_Thanos chuckled darkly before turning back to his minion. "No. Let the new King of Midgard have his fun...satisfied with his little victory; there is no risk to leaving them with him for now. The convergence will be upon us soon, and we must prepare to collect the Reality Stone. That is our priority."_

"_Yes, my lord," The Other simpered, and he returned to the shadows._

_Then Thanos smiled. THAT smile._

Oath

The hall hummed with the dull roar of anxious conversation, echoing off the marble walls of the throne room. The green and gold velvet banners hanging gracefully down from the ceiling did help dampen the noise some, but the sheer number of people ensured that raised speaking voices would be necessary. Hundreds filled the room - international delegates sat behind long curved tables that stretched in rows across the hall and tiered back toward the entrance, while journalists huddled around the edges in what little space remained, standing with their backs against the walls or crouching on the floor.

It had been a week since Loki's speech to the world. A week since the excitement of victory and the revelry that followed. A week since Loki took over Stark Tower, renamed it the Palace of Midgard, and took his place as Earth's first global leader.

No one could have anticipated the speed at which his conquest would proceed across the planet. Following his speech, the Chitauri continued to flow from the portal, day after day, flying off in squadrons and capturing the capital cities of the world almost methodically. In each city, leaders were given a choice - surrender, or be destroyed. Most invasions met no resistance at all - in some cases, civil coups had already displaced the leaders and welcomed Loki's forces by the time the Chitauri arrived. No harm came to anyone in those countries. But in the cities that resisted, battle was efficient and brutal. Without nuclear weapons, human forces were hopelessly, hilariously outgunned. And now, only a week later, every country in the world had fallen under the command of the God of Mischief. The Earth had surrendered, completely. Every delegate was there to sign away their country's freedom and swear loyalty to their new king.

The din softened slightly as several people noticed Loki enter from behind the dias, followed dutifully by Astrid and Steven. They walked to their seats - Loki's throne in the middle flanked by his most trusted advisors - and stood solemnly in front of the crowd. The room, however, did not go completely quiet until Loki pounded the base of the scepter on the ground. The sound resonated through the room like thunder, and all eyes turned to face him. The blue stone glinted hauntingly in the silence, but as Loki stood before them, he drew their attention with a well-rehearsed, charming smile.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he began, slowly opening his arms in a welcoming gesture. "I am honored that you have joined me on this historic day."

In the dark streets below, activists crowded outside the Palace, waving homemade signs, chanting and screaming under the harsh floodlights that dotted the Recovery City grounds. The Chitauri guards easily kept them at bay on pure intimidation - so long as they remained on the correct side of the barriers, the Chitauri didn't move. No one wanted to see what happened when one of them did. Loki's supporters were just as energized and vocal as Loki's opponents, and while his allies clearly outnumbered others near the base of the tower, riots raged further out in the streets of New York. The orange glow of fires dotted the city's night skyline as illuminated smoke floated into the air.

All part of the plan.

"Today, we truly enter a new era. Today, we officially establish my kingdom, the monarchy of Loki Odinson."

In his cell below the tower, Thor sneered, watching his former brother lambast his name on the closed circuit television outside his transparent prison. Odinson..._he_ was Odinson. But that was as far as his thoughts got before the sedatives turned his mind into a confused, foggy mess once again. _Revenge_...was the only feeling, the only word Thor could remember. _Revenge, revenge, revenge…_

"It is with great appreciation and steadfast determination that I lead you into the future. A future where oligarchs can no longer deny the health and happiness of our most vulnerable citizens. A future where every person has a right to survive and an opportunity to prosper. A future where the human race's greatest achievements are yet to come."

There was some applause, but it was obvious that not everyone in the room was there of their own free will. Some delegates shifted nervously in their seats, some scowled, But some looked thrilled and enthusiastic - those from the country that had willingly bent the knee upon the Chitauri's arrival. They all knew what they were to do. Say the oath, exactly, word for word, each in their own native language - Loki could understand them all.

"Today, I accept your commitment to work with me. We will make your glorious future a reality. Together, we will build a world that ushers in a renaissance of technological, scientific, and cultural advancement. Humans will no longer be hindered by the limits of their planet, and I will guide you as your species expands to the stars. My citizens, I humbly and gladly accept your promise of fealty, and look forward to the peace and prosperity to come."

On cue, a black woman in traditional Swahili dress stood proudly, a smile across her face.

"Mimi, Shali Furaha, mwakilishi wa taifa kubwa la Tanzania, swali uaminifu kwa Mfalme Loki Odinson."

Then she sat back down, and wrote her signature on a treaty, handing it with pride to the staffer collecting the documents. She beamed at Loki, and he gave her a smile and a nod of appreciation in return. Then his attention turned to the person to her left.

The next delegate stood, visibly uncomfortable. "Yo, Alberto Rodrigo Francisco Adelante, representante de la gran nación de Venezuela, juro lealtad al Rey Loki Odinson."

As he sat and signed his paper, he glanced up at his king. Loki gave him a solemn nod of approval, then turned to the next delegate.

A young woman in a blue dress with flowing red hair stood and locked eyes with him. He almost flinched; her gaze was strong. "I," she began, a slight North Irish accent tinting her words, "Matilda Taylor, representative of the great nation of Britain," - her voice cracked - "swear loyalty to King Loki Odinson."

As she spoke, he felt the resistance in her, the anger. The utter fury at what she had to do. She violently scribbled her name on the paper and practically threw it at the collector. Loki's eyes lingered on her a bit longer. This one, he would remember.

Each country, in turn, swore their allegiance to Loki and the papers were collected. One after the other, whether with enthusiasm, fear, outright loathing, or supposed indifference, the documents were signed, and Loki watched as each country was officially given to him. The oath wound its way through the tables, serpentining back, until an older white man in a charcoal grey suit stood. Loki watched him, expecting to hear the words, but as the silence grew longer, he leaned forward with impatience.

"I…" the old man's voice shook. "I...Gideon Malick, representative of the great nation of the United States of America…"

Loki stared him down. He recognized him as soon as he heard him - the voice Loki had to imitate a week ago to prevent catastrophe. The man who ordered the nuclear attack on New York...the man who would have murdered millions…

"...refuse to swear loyalty to King Loki Odinson."

There were gasps, followed by a thick silence. After a few tense moments, Loki simply looked down his nose at the man. "Come forward," he commanded. Malick walked toward the dias, visibly shaking despite his best efforts. Watching Loki like a man waiting to be struck down, he stopped in front of the king.

"Turn, and face them," Loki said. Malick looked confused for a moment, but he turned and looked at the crowd. The entire room stared back at him. Some were scared, some were morbidly fascinated by what might happen to him, some were angry. No one looked like they wanted to be where he was. And the fear of having the deadly Asgardian behind him made his shaking even worse.

"Continue," Loki signaled to the next delegate, and gave a slight smile to put her at ease. She rose and gave the oath, then signed and handed the paper to the collector. The procession carried on.

Malick got more and more uncomfortable as the oaths were spoken and documents signed, until finally, everything was done. The delegates had all sworn loyalty to their new king.

Loki stood and smiled. "My citizens!" he exclaimed. "You are, all of you, under the protection of the King of Midgard."

Some cheers rose from the crowd, as did polite applause. But everyone was wondering what Loki would do to the man, and the country, who had refused to swear loyalty to their king. Once the applause died down, Loki turned his attention to the unfortunate soul.

"Gideon Malick," he said, and his voice chilled Malick to the bone. It was murderous, seeping with rage, but icily controlled. Malick began to turn, but Loki pounded his scepter on the ground and shook the hall with its rumbling noise. "FACE THEM!" he yelled, and Malick turned back to the sea of terrified faces.

Astrid focused hard on maintaining her composure as she watched Loki lower the point of his spear and press it cruelly into the man's back, making Malick's legs almost buckle. This man who deserved whatever punishment the God of Lies could conceive.

"I want you to answer me truthfully, here, in front of the world." Loki growled. Malick's face went completely white

"Were you a member of the World Security Council before being assigned as a delegate at this meeting?"

"Yes," Malick said, tears of fear welling in his eyes.

"And were you put in that position by the shadow organization known as HYDRA?"

A hushed mumble rose from the crowd. As far as the rest of the world knew, HYDRA had been defeated back in the 1940's. Malick's throat closed. He couldn't even speak. He stared into the eyes of the world and said not a word.

"I assume your silence is an affirmative answer, unless you say otherwise," Loki sneered.

Again, a fearful gaze was the only response Malick could muster.

"Did you personally order the nuclear attack on New York City?"

Malick was shaking so badly he was barely able to stand. He remained quiet, his terror palpable.

Loki would not accept his silence this time. "ANSWER ME!" the king yelled.

Malick jumped at his demand. "YES!" Malick shrieked, and the tears began to stream down his face.

"Were you, Gideon Malick, willing to sacrifice the lives of millions of innocent people to maintain the position of power you were given by HYDRA?" Loki's voice boomed through the hall, resonated through him like thunder.

"Yes…" Malick sobbed. His legs finally gave out, and he slumped to the floor. Surprise and fear spread through the crowd like a wave. He was a pathetic heap of a man, now pissing himself in front of every person on the planet. Loki looked around, at the delegates, at the journalists, then back to the crumpled person on the green carpet. "This is a wicked man," he declared somberly. "Willing to murder millions to keep his status and influence that he garnered through corruption and subversive means. This is the man that _was_ in control of the most devastating weapons your species has ever created. Now look at him."

Malick's cries echoed through the silent room as all stared on.

"You are not a worthy representative for the great nation of the United States of America. Gideon Malick, I hereby charge you with treason."

Malick was so overwhelmed he couldn't bring himself to respond. Though at that point, he didn't need to. Two soldiers came and picked him up by his arms, and dragged him out of the room, his cries resonating through the chamber.

"You will be detained here in the Palace until such as time as this assembly can formally sentence you for your crimes," Loki continued as he was led from the hall. "And you will be punished to the fullest extent that our laws will allow."

Malick's pitiable cries followed him through the doors until silence filled the room once more, every person too on edge to make any noise at all. Loki waited a few moments, then took a deep breath and spoke to the delegates once more. "Effective immediately, I appoint Chloe Barnes as the new representative of the great nation of the United States of America." A confused murmur rose through the crowd, and Loki's sidelong smile spread almost imperceptibly across his face. Many of the journalists recognized her name immediately - she was the one who had interrupted her own televised interview to kick a falling piece of building away from a group of endangered refugees during the first hours of the recovery. She had virally become the face of "Loki's Army" overnight, and a huge social media following blossomed under her influence.

"Chloe is a native of New York. Before the attack, she came to us and volunteered to fight for me, for a better world, and was one of the original 300 soldiers who saved lives during the Battle. Though I met her only days ago, I am impressed by her tenacity and foresight, as well as her outlook - everyone deserves an opportunity to succeed, regardless of influence, regardless of money. I believe that is the heart and soul of America, and I believe this woman represents those values through her resolve and actions."

A young woman in a Lokian military formal uniform, very similar to Steven's, began to make her way toward the front of the room. Though she often exuded a carefree innocence that instantly drew people to her, today she grinned as she kept her eyes locked on Loki and approached the dias with a look that was both humble and confident, bright hazel eyes gleaming. Loki smiled and looked at to her, though he was truly addressing the crowd once more. "Chloe Barnes, do you take the oath and swear loyalty to your king and this monarchy?"

Chloe kneeled and bowed her head, but she spoke loudly enough that the assembly could clearly hear her. "I, Chloe Barnes, representative of the great nation of the United States of America, swear loyalty to King Loki Odinson." As she stood, a document was brought to her, and she signed it with an air of pride. With that, she walked to the empty space that had been vacated by Malick, and took her seat among the delegates.

Loki smiled and opened his arms once more. "To the Kingdom of Midgard!" he shouted. All of the delegates stood, as if on cue. "To the Kingdom of Midgard!" they replied, and a chorus of applause broke out among the masses. For several seconds, Loki continued to smile with his arms open, then he lowered his arms, and the room became silent once more. "I look forward to our first official meeting tomorrow. Thank you, everyone, for your cooperation." And with that, he pounded his staff on the ground, and the rumbling echo rattled through the marble chamber once more.

The noise level rose steadily as the journalists began reporting to their stations, commenting on what just happened. Some delegates stayed chatted for a while, others left immediately, while others began to do interviews with the ring of media around them. As expected, the largest group of media swarmed Chloe, and she addressed them all with a beautiful, happy smile. Loki, Astrid, and Steven exited the way they had come, behind the dias, and back toward their private chambers.

Loki took no questions afterward, he simply walked away from the cacophony. Astrid followed him quietly. Despite the show he had put on just seconds ago, she could see he was nervous; his jaw clenched and his eyes always looked forward. Even the God of Lies had his tells.

Steven walked next to Astrid, his face pale though his expression remained controlled. The riots outside were his responsibility, not only to start, but to end once the broadcast was over. They didn't use the Chitauri because Loki wanted people to be afraid of the rioters, not the aliens. It was about showing the people of New York that they had more to fear from those who resisted the new king than they did from Loki himself, a subversive tactic that Steven had not wanted to begin with, but Loki had insisted, so he had gone along with it. He was the king, after all. But that didn't make it any less difficult to bear the mental burden of putting his soldiers in harm's way for a lie - men and women he had been on those same streets with a week ago, keeping the citizens safe. His face stayed that way until they reached the door to Steven's quarters.

"Sir," Steven breathed. Loki reached out and put an arm on his shoulder.

"Steven. Thank you." A rare, genuine spread across Loki's face. "I know how hard this has been for you. I promise it will all be worth it." Steven felt a chill run through him and his stomach jumped a bit. A while ago he realized that smile on Loki was his favorite expression, but he'd gotten better at hiding what it did to him. Steven wanted to hug him, to bring Loki into his arms and tell him through his embrace alone how he felt...but he resisted that urge, and instead extended his hand. Loki shook it firmly, with intense eye contact, then nodded and released.

The new feelings that had developed in Steven over the past week surprised, scared, and excited him all at once. He'd never been so infatuated with _anyone_, man or woman...it wasn't the same as the attraction he had for the opposite sex, but it was no less powerful. There had been about a dozen moments Steven caught himself unknowingly staring at Loki, gazing vacantly at his king while lost in his own thoughts. He didn't know if he'd ever been caught, but if he had, it was never brought up.

He ignored it, denied it, even got mad at himself for feeling anything in the first place. It was risky, it was stupid, it was inconvenient. But...it was there.

Steven quickly looked at Astrid, then back to Loki. "Goodnight, Sir," he said, "I'll see you at 0900 tomorrow," and he entered his room, casting one last furtive glance at his king before closing the door. Once he heard Astrid and Loki's footsteps echo down the hall into silence, he leaned back against his wall and took a shaky breath before finally letting the tears roll down his cheeks.


	2. Chapter 2 - Protection

**And we're off! The first chapter is in the books. Um...literally. Hope you're enjoying it so far!**

As they walked away from Steven's quarters and toward the elevator, Astrid looked up at Loki. Tonight had been an important milestone, but she felt the weight of it, as she knew he did. She took his hand softly, and his fingers wrapped around hers with a gentle squeeze.

He leaned over and whispered in her ear as they walked. "There's something I need to show you. Follow me."

Loki led her to the elevator, and they went up to the top floors of the tower, exiting in the lounge. The city sparkled with points of color and light across a black landscape. It was a beautiful view - from up here, the issues of the world seemed far away. The only reminder was the fires that burned in the streets, and those vibrant orange glows seemed to blend in with the surrounding lights, giving them an almost surreal beauty.

Astrid assumed Loki wanted to have a drink, look out over their kingdom, and spend these last few moments together before heading to bed, but soon, she noticed Loki had moved all the furniture to the walls, leaving them with a fairly large open space.

"So, what's this about?" Astrid asked, looking around the empty floor. While she was focused on the layout of the room, Loki secretly materialized a dagger and began to walk around her.

"Astrid, with my new responsibilities, I may not be able to return to your side quickly enough to protect you. You will be vulnerable, and I need to know you can protect yourself."

"Vulnerable?" Astrid said incredulously. "There are guards everywhere in the palace. It's the safest place on Earth. And I'm not going anywhere anytime soon - all the meetings are taking place in the tower, and I've got way too much to do to even think about traveling."

Loki let the briefest sneer cross his face. "And you know all these guards? You trust their loyalty? You trust them with your life?"

Astrid stopped and stared at him. "Isn't that why they're here?"

"Most of them. Perhaps all," Loki's jaw tightened again. "But it would only take one of them to kill you."

"I took out half of the _Avengers _by myself!" Astrid countered, beginning to feel frustrated. Didn't he trust _her_?.

"During a surprise attack, connected to me with the stone, and enhanced by nanobots. Astrid, I have no doubt in your fortitude or intelligence, but this situation is different. Threats will be subtle and you won't be surrounded by the chaos of battle to distract your enemies. They are watching for weakness, any opening where they could strike and destabilize what we've built. Hopefully our plans will keep them at bay, but it would be foolish to rely on them entirely-"

Without warning, Loki quickly lunged at her, aiming the point of his dagger between her ribs.

Astrid didn't react fast enough. Before she knew it, she was slammed against the wall, Loki's forearm pressing on her throat, the tip of his dagger to her side. A trickle of blood seeped through her shirt; it was a shallow cut, never intended to harm her badly, but it was certainly enough to scare the hell out of her.

Astrid gasped and froze. Adrenaline shot through her as her heart began to pound, and she kept a wide-eyed stare on Loki. The sudden threat was like an alarm clock - the darkness awoke, ready to act, ready to reciprocate. But she was pinned. Tensely, she didn't move.

"If you're going to do this with me," he said, staring her down, "Prove to me you can keep yourself safe." With that, he stepped back, and she moved off the wall. She felt her hands shaking and the familiar tightness in her throat.

Loki sighed. "You need to be cautious...even around me. You can't afford to let your guard down. I'm trusting you to do this, Astrid." The last sentence was soaked in worry and concern - it was a rare moment of genuine truth.

"OK," she breathed. If letting him do this would give him some solace, she'd go along with it. "So, what do I do?"

Loki's worry shifted into a mischievous grin - dangerous, playful, focused. He stood crouched and looked up at her. "When your adversary has a hidden weapon, they will likely lead with the shoulder of their dominant hand when they move, like this," He took several steps forward, his right shoulder slightly ahead of his left. Astrid maintained her distance from him; she didn't need anymore bloodstains on this outfit. Loki's grin widened.

Slowly, he reached out and gently touched the blade to her ribs. "With subversive dagger attacks, the target area is the side of the abdomen. They will most likely strike straight forward, so if they're leading with their right shoulder, you can assume they will strike at the left side of your abdomen. Here." He stopped the point of the blade on her skin, making it indent but not break. She felt chills run down her spine, and she nodded again, listening carefully.

"Now, if you know this is coming, you can move out of the way and take advantage of their compromised position. Shift your weight to the right...NOW." Loki lunged forward with a practiced, controlled thrust as Astrid moved to the right. "Good. Keep your center of balance low."

Loki kept his arm at her side. "Now you can grab the attacker's arm with yours…" Astrid did as he instructed, squeezing her left arm to her side and trapping his forearm. "And you have an opportunity for at least one strike," he said. His eyes met hers - he was lower than her, which was an unusual sight, and seeing him looking up made her heart flutter.

He broke into a smile. "As much as I like _others_ kneeling before me, I will admit I quite enjoy the view from here."

This man who had sentenced a traitor to effective death just minutes before seemed young and almost coy trapped in her grasp. Astrid smiled back, feeling herself relax slightly, but she remained alert; he had said not to let her guard down, even for him. She nodded. "So, what do I do from here?"

Loki reached over with his free hand and took her wrist. "If you are unarmed, use the heel of your palm here," he placed her hand on his nose; Astrid shuddered; just the thought of hitting anyone there made her squeamish, "Or here," Loki put her hand on his throat. "Hit hard. Do not hold back. Hopefully that will be enough to stop them. Squeeze your left arm as hard as you can, and your attacker should drop their weapon." She did as he instructed, and right when she swore she was going to break his bone, he dropped the dagger. "That's good." He went to stand, and she released him. "Let's go again."

They ran through it over and over again, repeating the movement until Astrid could do it without thinking. Once he was satisfied, Loki flipped the dagger around and handed it to her, hilt first. Astrid looked at him warily before taking it. She felt the balance, the weight, the grip; it occurred to her that she'd never held a dagger before.

Loki took a deep, shaky breath, and Astrid's brows peaked with concern. He was really nervous, to the point where every time Astrid made eye contact with him, he turned away. She hadn't realized how scared he was...for her. She didn't know if he would have ever admitted it, if only for her sake. But she loved how he kept himself controlled while giving her the knowledge she might need to save her own life. He knew better than most what dangers existed in the universe. This was simply a precaution...and a comfort.

Loki wrapped his hands around hers as she held the hilt of the dagger. "This is yours now. Keep it on your person, hidden, at all times. Not just in case someone attacks you...but so you don't have to be afraid. Whenever you're challenged, remember this is here. The worst that can happen is you'll have to use it; but stand your ground. _You _don't break."

He looked at her as sincerely as he ever had, and Astrid felt her breath catch. The look on his face made her weak in the knees, and she swallowed hard, then nodded. "I will, Loki. I promise."

"Good," he smiled. Then he pulled her hands and the dagger toward him slowly, resting the tip on the soft spot under his chin. Astrid shook softly, but didn't lose her resolve, even as she felt the blade move while he spoke.

"When you attack, aim here. You'll want to strike up and forward. Always look at the point you want to hit...focus in on it, until you see nothing but that. You don't need strength with daggers, you need precision…"

Loki became quiet for a moment, and his gaze unfocused even though he looked straight at her. He blinked several times, then he gave a sad sigh before guiding her hands down, lowering the dagger from his throat.

"Sorry…" he mumbled.

"That's alright." Astrid said gently. "What is it?"

"It's...Thor." Loki said, and his smile turned to hurt before he forced a grin and looked back at her. "We used to train together. He would toss wooden discs in the air, and I'd practice throwing daggers in their centers. Then I'd cast illusions in the sky and he'd smash through them with Mjolnir. When we'd spar...he was lucky if he could land a blow on me. I was never going to overpower him, but our victories were about even." His gaze went distant again. "We had some very good times…"

Despite his smile, Astrid saw him struggling. How long had it been since he'd thought about his brother as anything other than the murderous threat he had become? Loki's shoulders sagged.

"But...those times were infrequent. His friends, the Warriors Three, they were more...like him. Strong, craving battle, always trying to get stronger, hit harder, move faster. I couldn't pick up logs one-handed and see who could throw it the furthest, like them. I couldn't keep up, not in the least. It makes sense, now that I know what I am. Frost Giant children - even ones that aren't _runts_ \- don't have nearly the physical strength of Asgardian youth. If I had known my true heritage growing up...I don't know, maybe I wouldn't have hated myself for falling behind. Maybe I could have learned to use the powers inherent in me as a Frost Giant instead of trying to hone Asgardian skills and failing. Or maybe I would have become the monster Odin feared I would be…"

Astrid squeezed his arm and gave him the sweetest, most loving smile she could muster. She could feel how hard this was for him, opening up about his past, reliving the moments that had driven him to madness. He pulled her closer.

"I grew up scared, alone, hoping for a genuine connection with anyone...and always ending up disappointed. I thought the only way I could survive my life was to control it, to have power, to force _everyone_ to respect me, or to fear me. Or at the very least, to fear what they didn't understand. Outsmarting those one-dimensional nitwits were the brightest moments to my otherwise dreary days - some of the only joyful times I remember was successfully pranking the warriors and royal court. I was the perfect prince to everyone, but my schemes were my own. My true feelings were always hidden...one of the few advantages I had over those around me.

"This magic," he said, looking down at his hands, then to Astrid. "It was...it IS...the one thing that is truly _mine_.

My mother started teaching me when I was very young...perhaps only 80 or 90 years old. She knew...she knew the whole time I would never be able to equal Thor in strength or influence, but my mind was far quicker than his. We started very small, just moving objects around a table. Eventually we would play chess without touching the pieces. Eventually...I started beating her. Then we moved on to illusions, and from there to conjuring, and then shape shifting. Father never appreciated her incredible talents, which is likely why he didn't understand what she was giving me. She was giving me the power to stand on my own, knowing there was NO ONE like me on Asgard."

Loki sighed. "Thor tried to support me in the only way he knew how. He tried to include me, out of pity...he was their leader, and if he said I could stick around, that's how it was. But his other friends resented me for it, especially Volstagg. I thought they just wanted him for themselves, but then when Sif began hanging around, impressing them with her fighting skills...they accepted her. They trained with her, sought out her company even when Thor wasn't around. They became _her _friends. I tried finding other people like me on Asgard, but being a prince is...isolating. I had all the tutors and teachers I ever needed, but never a peer, never a friend.

"Astrid, I miss Thor. I miss my...brother. I don't know if he'll ever be able to accept me, and I've stopped waiting for him to do so. But these memories of our youth...it reminds me of a time when I had hope that things would work out, that if I had enough faith in a happy ending, it would be mine. I miss…"

Loki stopped, staring into Astrid's bright blue eyes, trying to find the words.

"I miss being that naive."

Astrid said softly, resting her head on his bicep and cradling his arm against her. "Me too."

He laughed softly, then smiled sadly. "Astrid, being around Thor and his posse of idiots was the closest thing to friendship I'd ever known before I met you. I suppose it makes sense; as I spend my time with you, my rage subsides. I'm not simply trying to survive. I didn't know life could _be _like this. You…" he stopped, silvertongue failing him, unable to find the words. She had saved him, had not just brought him back but brought him up, made him better. She had risked her life to help him, and continued to do so. He had a partner. A companion. A friend and more. How could he possibly put that into words she could understand?

Astrid just smiled. "I do my best, my king," Astrid lilted with equal parts sarcasm and authenticity. She had always been impressed by him but now...she was proud of him. As powerful as all these beings were, deep down they were the same - seeking companionship, security, acceptance...just like her.

She still held the dagger gently, and she ran the pad of her thumb along the textured hilt. It was heavier than it looked, and the cool blue steel seemed to vibrate in her touch, responding to the soft motion.

Loki reached into his jacket and pulled out a long, white silken scarf. Beautiful embroidery adorned the ends, and it seemed to have a slight glow in the dim light of the lounge. As she looked at it, Astrid's heart started pounding; she could feel some kind of aura coming off of it - nothing she could have described, just a sense that it was important, and powerful.

Loki took a deep breath, then looked at her nervously. "Astrid...I want to perform a handfasting with you. It's the Asgardian equivalent of marriage, more of less. Normally there would be a large ceremony, lots of grandeur and pomp and circumstance...but I find myself averse to such a display in this one particular instance. In the strictest terms, it will secure your position as Queen should...anything happen to me."

"Nothing is going to happen-"

"Something could," he cut her off, his gaze as firm and steely as she'd ever seen, as intense as when they had first met. "I will protect you with my dying breath, but if I should die, you need to be able to continue our reign without unclear succession inciting mutiny."

"So…" Astrid stopped, the weight of what he was saying slowly sinking in. "Are you proposing to me? After knowing me for a week?"

"I…" Loki's face collapsed slightly, but he regained his composure quickly. "Well, for purely political reasons...it's the best way to-"

"Yes."

"Please, Astrid, give me a chance to- wait, yes?"

Astrid curled her fingers around his, carefully ensuring the blade of the dagger was pointed in a safe direction. "Yes. You're right. It's a bit...sudden," she smiled and almost laughed, "but I understand. It's what's best for the kingdom, If it will help maintain stability should something happen to you, then the sooner we do it, the better."

Loki blinked slowly at Astrid's calm demeanor. She seemed...distant. Somewhat off, but he couldn't understand what it was...his eyes drifted to the scepter he had resting against the wall. If there were ever a reason...

He pushed the thought from his mind. Neither of them really understood how it worked or why, and continuing to use it could have unforeseen risks. It could draw Thanos' attention, it could change one or both of them permanently, it could destroy their minds. And even if everything went as expected, to have to suffer that awful hollowness again when they inevitably would need to disconnect...no, it was too much to bear. Regardless, she had agreed - he had gotten the answer he wanted. And it was the smart thing to do.

Loki gently took her right hand in his, and wrapped them together with the scarf. A soft white light surrounded it, as Loki spoke:

_I carry you now within my heart_

_You flow through my veins_

_And dance in my breath_

_You and I, from now, forever_

_As one_

The scarf's glow became more pronounced, and Astrid could feel a warmth rising from where she held Loki's hand that radiated up her arm and spilled over into the rest of her body, tingling with a delightful sensation that brought a giggle to Astrid's chest. It remained for several seconds, and she watched as Loki's eyes closed slowly, and he took a deep, calm breath as he felt the waves flow through him as well. Then, when the feeling gradually faded, Loki opened his eyes. Astrid gave his hand a gentle squeeze.

"My queen," he said softly. She leaned into him and rested her head on his chest, closing her eyes and sighing.

"My king."

Astrid and Loki laid in bed that night, their fingers intertwined as they stared at the ceiling.

"How are you feeling?" Astrid asked softly.

"Nervous for tomorrow, mostly," Loki breathed. "This news will be disruptive, certainly. It could make future negotiations more difficult."

"Or more simple," Astrid countered. "Marrying a Midgardian is the perfect way to show you're committed to your kingdom. There's plenty of historical precedent. But...you know that." Astrid smiled and rolled onto her side, facing him. "This is a good thing, Loki. You're the one who knows what needs to be done. You were born and raised for this, remember?"

"Born a Frost Giant prince, raised an Asgardian prince, married to a Midgardian. Yes, of course. This all makes perfect sense," he sighed.

"Sometimes life doesn't make sense. Do you really want to compare 'Life didn't turn out the way I expected' stories? Because I've got a few I could tell you…" Suddenly, the night at Stuttgart flashed through her mind. She closed her eyes and shuddered.

The terror of it, the helplessness. His mocking voice as he violated her, toyed with her, exposed her secrets. The overpowering shame and weakness.

In spite of everything they had done together, everything they shared, that first night still haunted her. They had never really talked about THAT. And when would they have? They had both been so preoccupied conquering the planet over the last week that their first encounter seemed like ancient history. She told herself the world was completely different then, HE was different. That it was resolved, that there was no reason to bring it up - just let it go and focus on the task at hand. She pushed the memory away, as she always did. Not the right time. Not on her wedding night.

Fortunately, he didn't notice her hesitation, again lost in thought. She rested her hand on his chest, and he turned and looked at her, his beautiful face lightly illuminated in the dark room. She smiled at him and pulled herself closer, and he turned to take in the scent of her hair...the scent of familiarity, of comfort...of home.

Astrid lifted her head, and pressed her lips to his, smiling on his mouth. "Maybe I can help alleviate some of those jitters..." she purred. Loki let his wife do as she wished.


	3. Chapter 3 - Dreams

**Alright everyone. Buckle up, it's smut time.**

**\- Rose**

After a week in the tower, a week after saving millions of lives, Karine was exhausted. Her head throbbed, her eyes felt like they were full of sand, and she had knots in her stomach. It had been a long day, but instead of looking forward to rest, she prepared herself to confront her nocturnal tormentor. There was no question since their last encounter - over the last week, he'd made it clear that their past interactions were just in her dreams. They shared almost no contact in the tower. But that didn't make them any less dangerous. She put on her pajamas, brushed her teeth, and crawled into bed. She was asleep in minutes.

Karine's eyes opened slowly, surrounded by the familiar blackness. This time, there was no bed, no rack, no chains...she just stood calmly in the mysterious light with no source.

As before, Loki stepped out of the shadows, eyes locked on her. The knowing smile appeared on his face.

"Welcome back."

"Right…" Karine exhaled and looked around.

Loki began pacing around her. "So, now that you _know_ these are dreams, I'm curious: what do you plan to do?"

"Do I have a choice?" she asked, unemotionally.

"You've always had a choice, despite what you may think," he retorted.

Karine sighed. "Look, I would have been happy to go home. I would have loved to go back to my life, with Astrid, in my lab. Instead, you've made me a prisoner here."

Though she tried to maintain her indifferent look to him, Karine felt her throat close and tears well in her eyes - it was a dream, all in her mind. But it didn't feel less real. "I'm constantly just out of sight of my best friend, and the King of the World tortures me in my sleep. I'm in charge of the most advanced and powerful computer that has ever existed..." She had to stop herself for a moment, not believing her own words. "I didn't want this. I _don't_ want this. But I can't go back to my normal life, because it no longer exists - you destroyed it. Regardless if Astrid had joined you, the world that I knew - the future I was looking forward to - you took that from me."

"Change is inevitable, Karine," Loki's voice was gravely, heavy.

"But it wasn't my _choice_," she hissed back at him. "And I'm stuck here. Because if I leave, Astrid will die."

Loki raised an eyebrow with a look that indicated he wanted her to explain. Karine's demeanor darkened, and she lowered her eyes.

"This world you made, the one outside this tower, it doesn't want you here." she growled. "You are an invader, you took our planet by force. You threaten us. And because of that, she is in danger. Do you have any idea what it's like out there? What she's being called? 'The Great Betrayer'. 'The Antichrist'. Loki, before you showed up, people loved her - people loved _us_! We were doing amazing things, and we were just getting started!"

Karine paused a beat. She wasn't just losing her old life or her best friend...she was losing all the possibility of their lives and their research. Everything she had looked forward to, dreamed of, worked hard for - it was never going to happen.

With a shaky breath, Karine pushed back the tears and glared at Loki. "Do you know how many assassination attempts I've caught? How much people _hate_ her? I fear for her life everyday because of _you. _I don't care if she chose this or not; it's your fault the entire planet wants her dead. You made her a traitor to her own species. And the irony of it is, if I don't keep doing what I'm doing, if I don't help you keep your kingdom in tact, she is going to die. Her AND Steven. If this shit falls apart, they will be imprisoned, prosecuted, and given the death sentence. If they're lucky. If not…" The image flashed through her mind of what would happen if an angry mob got their hands on them.

With a tremble, she glared at him. "Unfortunately, now, the safest place for her to be is _here_, so that's where I need to be, too."

Loki tilted his head to the side. "So you're helping me rule the world to keep the world from killing Astrid? What an interesting dilemma."

He strolled toward her, watching like a predator, smiling deviously as he read her face and judging her responses.

After too long a silence, Karine snapped at him. "What is your _point_?"

Loki looked down, then broke into one of his disarmingly charming smiles with a soft laugh. When his eyes reconnected with hers, there was something that looked akin to menacing enjoyment. "My _point_ is...you're right. About everything. You've been right this whole time. I'll admit, until recently,I still would have done just about anything to rid myself of you, but now…I've changed my mind. I _want_ you to stay."

Her mouth went dry as his meaning washed over her, cold water pulsing through her veins. There was no way he thought she was"right" - that was obviously a lie. Her skills were valuable, but not unique...it was the dreams he wanted. Karine froze, staring at him unblinkingly.

Loki saw she understood, and his smile darkened. "I've enjoyed these nocturnal interludes, Karine. They fascinate me - your reactions and thoughts are endlessly intriguing. And I know you're enjoying them as well, more than you're willing to admit," he said. "I think they've given you something you didn't expect…"

Karine glowered at him. "And what's that?"

"Peace."

"Peace?!" Karine scoffed. "What on Earth makes you think any of this makes me feel peaceful?"

"Peace of mind, Karine. Powerful relief from the unstopping thoughts and fears in your head. I know how hard you fight, how you constantly battle to maintain your grip on reality. I saw all the methods you've tried - the therapy, the medications, the hospitals - but none of that could stop it. You never told Astrid about your condition. She has no idea how hard your compulsions are to control, does she?"

Karine stayed silent, but that silence told Loki more than anything she could have said.

Loki walked around her, circling her, leaning toward her ear as he spoke. "I'm offering you a respite from your overactive brain, Karine. Freedom from your anxieties. Peace."

He smiled, and stopped in front of her. They locked eyes. "Here is my bargain," he said. "In reality, we will act as if everything is normal. You will remain disguised as Val and continue to work with Jarvis to monitor our digital infrastructure, alerting me of threats and preventing any breaches of security. Protecting Astrid. I will interact with you only on official business, and that will be the extent of our acquaintance. But when you go to sleep,.."

He got close to her. _Very _close.

"I will fulfill every depraved fantasy that you would blush to even whisper aloud, every masochistic desire you've ever had, things that would be impossible in the physical world but that I know you crave. I've seen everything you want, Karine. And every bit of it will _feel_ real, as real as anything you've ever experienced. Every. Night."

His eyes danced with madness as he spoke about her secret wants - a madness that was strange and exciting...and familiar. It was the same feeling that simmered within her when she remembered those dark fantasies, laying in her bed at night or getting distracted during the day. And no matter what she did, no matter how many toys she used or videos she watched...it always wanted more. Karine felt a shiver at the thought - an intoxicating combination of delight and fear. For a moment, she forgot to breathe, getting lost in the possibilities that circled through her mind...even though she hated him, his promise was _very_ tempting…

Karine returned his gaze. "I want to stop hiding, Loki. I want Astrid to know I'm here."

Loki chuckled, "You know I can't allow that."

"Then no deal," she said firmly, though so much of her wanted to say yes.

Loki smirked. "Perhaps a small taste will help sway you..." THAT smile crossed his lips, and Karine was immediately on high alert.

Suddenly, out of the shadows, a blur of movement streaked toward her. Before she could react, something wrapped around her arms and legs, lifted her off the ground, ripped off her clothing like paper and shredded it to pieces before letting it fall to the floor, leaving her completely naked. Karine screamed and struggled, and her eyes wide with shock as she realized what they were...

Tentacles.

She stared at Loki, as much from horror and disbelief as from terrified arousal, and a low chuckle escaped his lips as he stepped toward her, the mass of squirming tendrils bursting from his back glimmering in the light as he approached. He shook his head and stared into her eyes.

"I've had some dark, strange thoughts, Karine. But I must say I'm most impressed. The things in your head, my girl...it's a wonderland."

One of the tentacles stretched out and wrapped itself around her waist, spiraling around her torso, until the tip rested just on her nipple. Karine's breath caught; her ears rang and she began to shake as the adrenaline kicked into her veins, her eyes frozen on the God of Mischief, Another slick tendril slithered its way along her back, over her shoulder, and on to her other breast.

Two more wound their way up her thighs, pulling them apart, sliding upward and finally teasing both openings between her legs. Instinctively, Karine jerked to escape them, but she barely moved. They seemed to grow more eager in response.

"Karine..." Loki purred, running his hand up her bare calf as she squirmed. "All I need from you is a simple yes or no." A tentacle flew forward and stopped right in front of her face, swaying like a cobra ready to strike.

"If you agree to this, if you'll continue to help me rule my kingdom under the conditions we've discussed…if you trust me to hold up my end of the bargain, and if I can trust you..." He reached up and cupped her cheek in his hand, looking deeply into her eyes.

"Open your mouth."

Karine stared back at him in a daze. It almost sounded like he was...pleading. It was something he craved as much as she did, something HE desperately wanted to explore. Not even Astrid could touch this part of his mind, the part that would scare away anyone who wasn't already there. Karine and Loki's shared perversions were the perfect compliment. This deal could be her only chance to truly understand these urges and revel in them. There was no other way. Not anymore.

Karine closed her eyes...and opened her mouth.

Slowly, the tip of the tendril in front of her face moved forward. It touched her bottom lip and she jolted slightly, but stayed still, eyes closed, her brow furrowed by the conflict within her. She continued to tremble as it slid into her mouth, over her tongue, and down her throat.

Karine felt vulnerable, incapacitated to an extent that she had only ever imagined. The tentacle down her throat pulsed and writhed gently, working itself in and out far enough down that her gag reflex didn't trigger...not that it would have; this was all just a dream, no matter how real it felt. She breathed, sensations rolling through her, everything alive and reactive. Her arms were pulled behind her, open wide; her chest pushed upward; her legs twitched and tugged against the living restraints as the tentacles caressed her skin. Her head fell back in surrender and she accepted the violation. The tentacles on her breasts began to roll over her nipples, sucking at them and pulling them up, then dropping them. And the tendrils between her legs spread her netherlips apart, exposing her to Loki. He grinned, and a large, black tentacle slithered forward toward her. It extended and touched her gently, rubbing itself up and down her slit, lubricating its head with her juices. All Karine could do was let out a muted, guttural moan as it as its massive girth pushed slowly inside her.

More tentacles rose up to Karine, playing with her anus, the smaller ones dipping in and out until a thick, textured arm made room to begin widening her ass, pushing it open with patient persistence. Her eyes began to water as one sensation after another stacked on top of each other, every new ministration making the experience exponentially more devastating.

Loki watched with unbreakable fascination, the strangeness and darkness of it kept him utterly entranced by what _she had wanted_ done to her. Was it masochism? Hedonism? Self-punishment? Maybe all of that, and then some. He felt his own darkness surge to the surface with every muted whimper and scream that came from her, and he had an irresistible urge to see what happened every time he moved her, squeezed her, stroked her.

Another tentacle with suction cups covered her clit, stimulating her into a frenzy. With all of her sensitive areas being toyed with at once, she couldn't control herself. She kicked and pulled and fought, but her body reacted instinctively as the sensations mounted. Her entire body vibrated, and Karine shuddered and squealed in his grasp.

The textured tentacle pushed itself into her core, and began pumping.

Loki's manipulations grew faster and more rhythmic. He occasionally would push a little too far, move a little too quickly, and for a split second it would hurt Karine and she would only be able to focus on the pain...then it was gone just as quickly, and the pleasure that replaced it was intoxicating, more powerful and devastating than the pain could ever be.

She couldn't tell whether she wanted it to stop or desperately needed it to continue. She couldn't escape it, couldn't get away no matter how much she struggled for freedom, couldn't control the noises she made, couldn't keep herself from spasming and twisting as Loki did his work. She was on fire with pleasure and pain. Hot tears streamed out of her eyes as she screamed. She was so...full...

All at once, the tentacles erupted. She was filled with a liquid that penetrated every crevice of her body, impossibly adding to the fullness she already could hardly stand. With one last, desperate cry, her orgasm exploded from everywhere at once. It crashed through her body, dissolved any resistance she had left, changed her movements from tugging and pulling to quivering and sinking. Unable to fight, unable to escape or find relief, Karine could only scream as the constant, unending, unyielding pleasure rolled through her like thunder echoing in a storm. The sound was hardly a whimper as the tentacles held her in place and her body went rigid.

Karine's mind broke amidst the pain and pleasure, the adrenaline and the torment, and the final orgasmic violation... her thoughts were blank; she was nothing, nowhere. She was only sensation, only the moment - no dreams, no worries, no hopes or plans. Just sensation, want, desperation. And peace. Willingness to relinquish her body and self for the sake of this release, for the mental emptiness that followed. Karine experienced a surrender so deep she didn't want to come out. It cradled her, made her quiet, craving nothingness.

The tentacles remained in place, firm, still pumping yet more of their juices into her, pulsing gently. Karine's eyes rolled back in her head. After another minute, she stopped moving.

Karine's limp body was lowered to the ground. She had nothing left - every part of her had been electrocuted: mind, body, and spirit. She shuddered occasionally, the aftershocks sending her into gentle twitching and soft moaning every few seconds. Loki pulled the tendrils from her slowly, his gaze unflinching from Karine naked on the floor of the empty, black room. She was unresponsive, her eyes vacantly half-open. A shell. Loki took one last look at her before he backed into the shadows once again.

Loki's eyes opened. It was quiet in his room, save for the peaceful breathing next to him. He glanced over at Astrid, sleeping soundly. The grey light of dawn had just begun to show itself through the windows, but he needn't awaken her for another few hours.

With a heavy exhale, he stared up at the ceiling. What had he been dreaming about? He could tell it was powerful - maybe a nightmare? He remembered the darkness, and someone screaming muffled cries, but beyond that...no, it was gone. Loki usually remembered his dreams, but they had been especially elusive since the battle. Regardless, he knew sleep wouldn't come to him again; he carefully left the bed, being sure not to disturb Astrid, and made himself a cup of tea. As the sun rose over New York, Loki stood out on the balcony and watched a new day begin on his world.

Karine's eyes bolted open. It was still dark in her quarters - the early morning light barely peaked through the gaps in her closed curtains. Her heart was pounding, beads of sweat speckled her forehead. _Holy shit_…

She was trembling. What had he done to her? What had she agreed to? He'd visit her..._every_ night? She swallowed hard, swearing she could feel the tentacles inside her still, could feel the liquid sloshing around...she closed her eyes and shuddered.

_More._


	4. Chapter 4 - Fear

**So, that last one was kind of a doosy, huh? Trying out some new things and seeing how I like them. So far, the exploration has been fun, so I'm gonna keep right on doing that. :)**

**-Rose**

Deep in the bowels of the Palace of Midgard, Gideon Malick sat shivering in a dark, quiet room, handcuffed to the steel chair for what felt like all night...it had to be morning by now. The supply-closet-turned-prison had one guard outside the door, standing in silence, and the utter nothingness happening was driving him mad. Being forced to sit, unmoving, for as long as he had been...why was this taking so much time? HYDRA always had some plan to retrieve him when things went sideways, but usually he had an idea of what they would do. This time, though, he was confused...and impatient. Shouldn't they have broken him out by now?

Finally, for the first time since he'd been thrown in this hole, Malick heard muffled voices approaching outside the door. He looked up at the threshold, trying to make out words. One of the voices...was that...it had to be…

The door handle twisted violently enough to nearly break, and the dim lair was suddenly illuminated painfully and completely by the brightest light Malick had ever seen, blinding him. He recovered as fast as possible, blinking quickly to see exactly what he feared he would: the backlit silhouette of the King of Midgard, those massive horns malevolently rising from the front of his helm and casting two long, sinuous shadows across his face.

"Mr. Malick…" Loki hissed.

The king's long green cape fluttered with a soft push of air as Loki closed the door behind him. He seemed to take up the entire space, and the dim light from the naked bulb hanging from the center of the room amplified the imposing look in Loki's eyes as he glared down at his victim; the carefully cultivated control from the assembly this morning was terrifyingly absent. Malick recoiled from him, pulling against his restraints as the instinct to hide himself took over the lizard part of his brain, despite how obvious it was that the action would be in vain.

Loki reached out toward a second chair on the wall. It instantly flew to his hand and he quickly swung it around, sitting on it backward in an unsettlingly casual manner, Loki's long legs spread wide enough for his knees to nearly reach the opposing walls. He held the scepter horizontally between his hands as his arms rested on the top of the backrest. Then...THAT smile - twisted, malicious, and perfectly indicating just how fucked the former HYDRA leader was.

Loki leaned on his forearms and glared at the mortal, every sadistic idea he had considered for this moment dancing behind his pitch black, distended pupils, feral and excited.

"I've been anxious to visit you. I had hoped to keep you here for much longer before coming myself, but I find my new responsibilities are taxing my normally patient tendencies - I've been far too eager to come and see your face when I told you..."

It was hard to believe that Malick could have lost any more color, but every shade of flesh drained from him. He waited agonizingly long for Loki to finish his sentence, until it became apparent that the God of Mischief _wanted_ him to ask. Swallowing hard, Malick did. "Told me what?"

"Oh, now Gideon," A sneer spread across Loki's face, but he looked almost giddy, like he was trying to keep a secret that was just moments from bursting from his lips. "For as much as I lack any respect for you whatsoever, surely you aren't all _that_ thick."

Loki looked at him expectantly, waiting again for some kind of an answer; this time, though, Malick remained silent, trying to not give any indication of weakness in this standoff, but honestly unsure what Loki expected him to say. Finally, with a sigh, Loki rolled his eyes and groaned.

"Very well - I suppose I must walk you through it, then…how did you become a delegate at that assembly, hm?"

Gideon's eyes narrowed, "The Council," he said softly, wondering where this line of questioning would lead. "After you announced that delegates would be selected from each country for the Loyalty Ceremony, they said I should take the position. I should be the first to refuse the oath, to inspire rebellion and find allies among the other delegates."

"Yes…" Loki mewed viciously. "And how did that work out for you?"

Gideon simply glared at the king. He hadn't been told what the plan was beyond that, just that HYDRA had everything in place. In a moment of pure idiotic allegiance, he decided to stand his ground, even if he didn't have all the information.

"We bow to no one!" Gideon said loudly, almost angrily. The sudden burst of passion made Loki's eyebrows shoot to his hairline with amusement. Gideon scowled at the king with what could have been seen as a surprising amount of backbone, a trait that Malick had become very adept at faking. "Someone has to stand up to you, and that's the United States and the World Security Council. I will not waiver in my dedication. We _will_ bring you down!"

Then, with another unpredictable change in persona, Loki _giggled_. "Ehehehehe…that's adorable," he preened as Malick's face fell.

"What do you mean?" Malick demanded.

"Gideon, _I _told them to make you the delegate. I _told_ them that you were to refuse the oath. And they followed along brilliantly, don't you think? You really didn't suspect a thing! They are quite good at culling the herd when necessary - I think they'll make excellent partners in the coming years."

"But...why? I've been nothing but loyal to them!"

"Oh, HYDRA was more than willing to offer you up after losing the Battle of New York. It was a simple bargain; I got YOU in exchange for...well, Mr. Zemo seemed to want to continue breathing, which was getting more difficult with my hand around his throat. And the rest of the Council...they knew a good bargain when they saw one."

Loki growled, and he stood, pushing the chair violently into the wall and standing tall in front of the cowering man, his sneer turning cold. "And after that stunt you pulled with the nuclear weapons, I've been positively hungry to get you alone."

"But.." Malick whimpered, trying to raise his arms to protect himself, but they were still cuffed to the chair. Instead, he only jolted and his face screwed up. "But you said the assembly would decide my punishment!"

Loki leaned down close to his face, and Malick felt chills run down his spine. "All of those treaties included a clause sentencing you to death, the method of which is left to my sole discretion. Every country on the planet signed it."

Malick stopped breathing, his pupils retracting to pinpricks as fear overtook him. He was well and truly at the mercy of a vengeful god-king.

"But first…" Loki's low voice rumbled as the blue stone in the scepter glowed. "I have been so looking forward to this." He touched the scepter to the Malick's chest, and felt the mortal's mind enter his own while Malick's frail body went limp in the chair.

"Show me what you fear…" Loki snarled.

Haunting, hideous images of an inhuman creature bubbled up from his memories, one that could infest corpses and would bring the end of the world; secretly, Gideon was dedicated to its return, and was also completely terrified of it. Flashes of torture, isolation...clowns? Loki grinned, flipping through the hells in Malick's subconscious like a half-interested shopper perusing a catalog.

Gideon panicked and screamed in his mind, trapped inside his own immobile form. Minutes passed, until finally a sinister smile tugged at Loki's lips. He released Malick, and the man gasped as he regained control of himself. Horrified, he looked at Loki's malefic grin.

"I have good news, and I have bad news, _Gid_," Loki said, pulling Malick's childhood nickname into the conversation. Malick winced. "The good news is, you won't die today."

With that, Loki bent down and unlocked the handcuffs with a derisive grin. Malick looked up at him, rubbing his reddened wrists, his brows furrowed in confusion and dread.

"The bad news is...you will have wished you had."

Suddenly, Malick's head felt like it was splitting open. He screamed and shut his eyes fiercely, but it only lasted the briefest of moments. Just as suddenly, the pain stopped. Malick opened his eyes and looked around; apparently he was no longer in the small closet, but in a stone dungeon with chains on the walls and water dripping from the ceiling. And a disturbing, monstrous growl coming from the shadows…

Loki closed the door to the small closet as Malick's terrified screams started to echo the walls of the confined space, his unbreakable illusion starting what would be a very, very long sequence of tortures. As he left, he saw the guard stiffen almost imperceptibly, looking just barely uncomfortable but keeping that long-distance military stare focused forward. With a quick gesture, Loki cast a simple soundproofing spell behind him; the screams were instantly muted, and though the guard remained at attention, Loki saw him relax somewhat.

The soldier was an older man, looking in his early 40s. Loki raised an eyebrow as he noticed his uniform was completely, perfectly worn, properly pressed and each piece laid with care. It seemed odd that the person assigned to guard a closet in the basement was so well put together and disciplined. Loki had asked Steven to select the guard for this post personally, but he had expected some young up-and-comer looking to make an impression. This gentleman looked like he had been a career soldier before the abrupt political transition that Loki had brought about. It intrigued him enough to stop and face the guard, giving him a signature, everything-is-fine-here, charming smile. "What's your name, soldier?"

The man straightened when Loki addressed him,"Fraser, sir. Charlie Fraser."

"Foster gave you this detail?"

"Yes, sir."

"Why?"

Charlie blinked, unsure why he was asking, but tried his best to answer anyway. "I...um...General Foster and I served in Afghanistan together. Two tours, same squad. And I was with him during the Battle of New York. He...asked me to join. I suppose he trusts me, sir, which I assume is a trait that's hard to come by at the moment."

"I see…" Loki mused. If Steven selected him specifically, knowing what Loki would do to the traitor in the broom closet, there must be a reason more than that. "Fraser, understand that I asked him to assign someone who would stay tight-lipped about the goings on of this monarchy. I need someone who is comfortable with some of the more...intense requirements of politics and ruling. I'm only going to ask you this once. Are you willing and able to do anything asked of you, without question, and without sharing that information with anyone, even Foster?"

Charlie didn't even hesitate. "Yes, your highness."

Loki smiled again and clapped his hands together. "Excellent! As usual, Foster has done well. Fraser, make sure no one goes in there. It's going to be a mess. We'll recover the body in a few days, before it starts to smell too badly." With a stunned but obedient nod, Charlie stood at attention. Though the noise was gone, Loki's smug, satisfied grin remained as his victim's tormented screams of agony continuing to play out in his mind. He left the basement and headed upstairs, where the congregation of delegates awaited his arrival for their first session.

"This is outrageous!"

The ambassador from Russia yelled and slammed the paper on the table. "These taxes are egregious! You will take everything from us!"

Other than the handful of completely devoted delegates, the room began to murmur. "You've completed removed any autonomy our countries have!" he screamed. "The economy will collapse! Civilization will collapse!"

If Astrid didn't know better, she would have thought that man was literally having an aneurism, but somehow he kept standing there fuming, face bright red, glare boring into Loki. Loki didn't even look up at him - in fact, he looked bored...and was he staring at his fingernails? He had been surprisingly quiet through most of the meeting. After announcing their marriage (to more than a few surprised gasps) and explaining the general terms of their agreement, he had spent most of his time lost in his thoughts, just the slightest hint of a grin ghosting the corner of his lip.

Astrid spoke up.

"Well, how would _you _suggest we go about feeding and providing for the people in your country?" she asked as placidly as possible.

"By letting US do it! You cannot tell us how to live!"

"We are not telling you how to live; we are telling you what we need in order to help stabilize your economies and end the poverty that has been rampant for as long as anyone can remember. Given the vast amounts of wealth you have, you should hardly notice a change in lifestyle at all, Mr. Sokolov. Just a change in the number of assets you hold."

"You bitch!" he yelled.

"_MISTER_ Sokolov," Loki sneered. The room went deathly silent, all murmuring coming to an immediate halt. All eyes stared at the king, who now focused his utmost attention on the Russian delegate.

"You keep your tone with her in check, or you won't live to see the sun rise tomorrow." He said, pointing his scepter at the man, his ice cold glare shooting daggers into his heart. "You and your kind have put this world in imbalance, and it must be corrected. Your queen has decided by which method. And you dare contradict her?"

"What does this balance look like to you, your _highness_?" the man growled at him, spitting the word "highness" like a curse.

After a tense moment, Loki shifted from murderous to bored again in a heartbeat. "You do what I say," he hummed casually. "I provide for you. I decide when you have enough. And all you have to do is obey. See? Easy."

Astrid's blood ran cold. He had been acting _very _strangely today, and this was just another example of madness he'd been exhibiting. She squeezed her hands together in her lap as tightly as she could, keeping her mouth shut and trying desperately to maintain her composure. But this meeting was becoming entirely unproductive, and Loki seemed to be the one making it that way.

Mr. Sokolov snarled, clenching his fists, his face changing from the bright red of an overcooked lobster to a deep crimson. Astrid noticed Loki's grip on the scepter tighten, and a look on his face that said he was just waiting for the impertinent man to give him enough of an excuse to kill him.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Astrid stood and addressed the ambassadors, turning attention from the two. "Perhaps it would be best for you and your teams go over these terms in more detail on your own. We will reconvene later today, at 4:00pm. You are dismissed."

More suspicious murmurs filled the room as the delegates began packing their things and leaving. Astrid leaned over to Loki on his throne. "We need to talk. NOW," she whispered harshly, and she stomped off the dias, headed for Loki's office. Steven and Loki met eyes as he left his throne and followed her, and Steven very obviously broke eye contact, knowing Astrid was pissed and Loki was in trouble. A low growl was the only reaction Loki allowed himself before leaving the dias.

When Loki got to the room, she was leaning over his desk on her palms, her head hanging slightly between her shoulders, and she was taking deliberate, slow breaths. He closed the door behind him, sliding the lock silently into place.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Astrid snapped, not turning to look at him. "What could you possibly accomplish by behaving that way with the delegates. You're here to _lead_ them, Loki. What-"

Loki's mouth was on hers before she even registered he had moved. He had her pinned her against the desk, his hips pressing against hers, his hands covering hers and keeping her from moving. His kiss was ferocious, and he bit her lower lip hard enough to draw blood. Astrid was shot full of adrenaline instantly, and she began to struggle against him, but even she knew it was no use - he was unfathomably strong, and she didn't have the nanobots to help her. He leaned into her and forced her into a backward bend, until she lost her balance and landed on the desk.

A flash from Stuttgart - that first bump at the top of the landing. Looking up into his cold, blue eyes and wondering who he was, and why he was looking at her that way…

Loki stopped their kiss and stared down at her caged body. "They are but nothing, my queen. They are merely pawns in our game, and all they must do is follow."

The chocolate silk tones of his voice rolled through her like liquid, and instantly she wanted to forget why they had come in here and just be ravaged. But some of her brain cells kept working. "We can't...treat them like that," she managed to breathe.

"And why not?" Loki purred, and he licked the shell of her ear, sending her into a series of shudders.

"We need their- HELP!" she gasped as she suddenly realized her pants were gone and his hand was salaciously sliding down her ribcage. "Loki, this is not the time-"

"This is the perfect time." He pulled her hands up over her head, and with another burst of inhuman speed and coordination, he had her wrists tied together with something soft and silky, anchored to the desk. "We don't have to deal with them again until 4:00, thanks to you."

At first she couldn't figure out what was restraining her, but as she rubbed the luxurious fabric between her fingers, realization dawned slowly - Astrid closed her eyes and swallowed hard. It was the wedding scarf, it had to be. He watched her, his pupils blown black, and he didn't move or say anything for what felt like minutes. For the first time in a long while, she was scared of him. He was the monster again.

Finally, he took a deep breath and chuckled darkly. "This is _our_ world, Astrid - _our_s. We don't need their opinions. We just need them to do their jobs. But right now, my queen, we needn't worry about any of that."

Again, his voice was luscious and sinful, and she felt a wave of aphrodesia course through her once again. She was painfully wet with desire...was he using magic on her?

She didn't even have time to finish the thought before she felt the head of his cock rubbing up and down her center. He lathered it in her juices and slapped her clit several times, the wet sound resonating off of the office walls.

Astrid whimpered, losing the battle to keep her sanity. He bent over her, lining himself up, and he whispered in a husky voice that almost brought her to completion all by itself.

"I will give you everything, Astrid. I will give you the world you want. These people, these _delegates_, cannot stop me. Nor would you."

He plunged inside her and she instinctively grabbed the scarf and pulled, moaning as he began an even rhythm, almost casual in cadence. Astrid lost herself in the movement.

In Loki's mind, Malick's tortured cries continued - so many hours after he had left the pathetic mortal, and the man was still screaming. He had been listening to that beautiful sound all morning, all during the meeting, and he couldn't wait to get Astrid alone and continue to enjoy the sonorous tones of torment while encased in his magnificent queen's body, her desperate cunt gripping at him with fierce desire. He could have destroyed this world; he could have enslaved all the humans and made his throne on a pile of their bodies. To even put up with these assemblies and meetings was a testament to his love for her, trying to make the world how SHE wanted it. He wouldn't need to deal with them for long. Once everything was in place, he could begin to enjoy his new title, and all the benefits that came with it.

But for now...for now he would indulge his mortal, his partner, his bride. She would not be hard to persuade as time went on…

Then he looked down. He saw the sweat starting to bead off Astrid's forehead as her need became more urgent and intense. Her cheeks flushed rose red and her lips were full with desire. Her keening moans hitching in rhythm to his thrusts - and he decided he should start persuading her right now. He slid his hand between them and pressed his fingers to her sensitive mound, reveling in the sound of her lusty cries overlaying the screams of his victim in the broom closet.

He leaned down close to her face, slowing his assault to nothing and simply pushing himself up into her. "You're so afraid of the monster I can be…" his voice rang in her ears, deep and dark as a storming ocean; fearsomely familiar, like the first time she heard it in the study. When he'd said her name like he could already taste her. Like a force of nature. That voice was the only thing her brain could focus on while her body went into overstimulation overdrive. "Perhaps, my dear, you need to embrace more of the monster in yourself. Allow me to coax it out of you..."

Two hours later, Astrid's hoarse voice was screaming Loki's name for the hundredth time, her naked body squirming on his desk as he took her through the latest of her uncountable orgasms. Tears ran down her cheeks and she gasped for air, fingers feebly clutching at the scarf. "Please...please…" she sobbed, wet eyes gleaming helplessly at her king. Though she honestly couldn't say what she was begging for anymore, whether she wanted it to continue, or stop, or change...just the act of begging felt right. Begging to give him whatever he wanted, to be his forever, to follow his every word, just please...please…

Loki glistened with sweat, finally starting to feel the strain of this marathon fucking, when he realized with a touch of disappointment that Malick's screams had subsided to whimpers. He had been so transfixed on Astrid's face, watching her alternate between gritty determination, furious anger, and utter capitulation for all that time. Her skin was flushed red, her hair soaked with sweat and tears...so beautiful, so open and vulnerable and HIS.

_HIS._

That one thought pushed him over. With one final thrust, he came right as her orgasm was calming, and the palliative feel of his heat on her exhausted insides soothed her so quickly she nearly passed out.

He remained inside her as he caught his breath, feeling all the hormones and endorphins slowly seep from his bloodstream as his muscles relaxed. Astrid shuddered with delicate aftershocks, her head rolling softly from side to side, her eyes half-open and her mind obliterated. She could hardly feel her body - it was like she was floating, shivering through the air. It felt like heaven when Loki's strong arms picked her up and carried her to the private elevator that took them to their quarters,

Back in their bedchambers, Loki bathed her, washing her hair and scrubbing her over-sensitive body gently. He hummed softly as he worked, songs that Astrid didn't recognize but sounded vaguely like hymns or ancient prayers. While his speaking voice was already otherworldly in power and beauty, his singing...even just a hum...resonated through her like all the sounds of the natural world - a rocky stream, the wind in the trees, the sound of footsteps on a sandy beach. Her eyes remained lightly closed as she reveled in the warmth of the water, the caress of his touch, and the melodious timbre of his perfect baritone.

When the water started to cool, he helped her out of the giant tub and dried her in the softest towel, then combed her hair at the foot of the bed, all the while speaking quietly about how much she impressed him, how proud he was to have her as his queen, how beautiful and wonderful her body.

In her half-daze, Astrid smiled - maybe being queen wasn't so bad after all.

"...to get ready, my dear?"

Astrid was so lost in how good she felt that she hadn't realized he had asked her a question. "Whaaat?" she was slow to respond, still blinking drowsily.

Loki chuckled softly. "I said, we meet with the delegates again in an hour. Let's get you ready." He stood her up slowly, and pressed his lips to her, smiling as she leaned into him like a cat grazing against a leg. "I do hope you'll be able to string a few sentences together while we try and get these ambassadors under control." He took her face in his hands and stared deeply into her beautiful, azure eyes. "You realize, the less we have to deal with these _delegates_, the more time we'll have for this."

Astrid giggled, but she didn't miss the edge of menace under "delegates." She had to admit what she already knew: he really hated these meetings, and she was dragging him into them metaphorically kicking and screaming. His idea of leadership was so different from hers - his specialty was to influence subversively, like he'd done for centuries; now in charge, he was having trouble getting what he wanted. And she hadn't been helping, insisting that they collaborate openly and honestly with all of the countries to come up with terms that were fair and equitable. Perhaps he was right...perhaps a bit of the monster was needed to move things along.

"Loki...I have an idea."


	5. Chapter 5 - Assembly

**Thanks to a long holiday weekend and a burst of inspiration, I got two chapters done in two days! I love it when that happens. :)**

**-Rose**

At 4:00pm, Astrid and Loki returned to the meeting chambers. Steven had arrived before them and was already seated on the dias, leg tapping impatiently, when he saw them approach. He exhaled with relief as he heard their footsteps, but almost had trouble regaining his breath when he turned and saw them. Loki wore his kingly vestments as usual, but Astrid...she was dressed _very _differently from that morning. Instead of the sensible business suit, she wore a gorgeous Asgardian-style dress. Chartreuse velvet cascaded down her body, a gold and black chain belt around her waist separating the fitted torso from the flowing gown. The back of the dress scooped down and barely concealed the dimples of her lower back, draped in soft fabric that almost ethereally floated in the gentle air current as she walked. Her hair was done half-up in a complicated plaited spiral, the rest of her long blond hair meandering down her shoulders and back. The teardrop emerald pendant rested fittingly in the hollow of her throat from her gold necklace. And on her head was the gold and green band she wore in the Battle, sitting atop her head like a crown settled naturally among her decorated locks.

Steven peered over at the two, feeling very out of the loop - they obviously had something planned, but it would be just as much a surprise for him as for the rest of the delegates. Astrid threw him a furtive glance, her eyes glittering with anticipation as she winked quickly before turning forward again. The politicians stood as the royal couple entered, quieting as they waited for the king to speak. He stood, towering over them on the dias, and pounded his staff on the ground to begin their assembly.

"Ladies and gentlemen...your queen will lead the discussion of these treaties on my behalf going forward." The now-familiar murmurs softly rose and fell as he turned to her.

"My dear," Loki reached to her, and she took his hand, walking forward to stand equal with him on the dias. Ceremoniously, he handed her the scepter. The gasps and clucking of the crowd vibrated through the room, and Loki barely suppressed a delighted smile. "The floor is yours," he said.

With that, he stepped back to her throne, while she stood in front of his in the center. The blue stone glowed as she held the devious golden scepter, and Astrid felt a familiar surge of energy originate from it and flow into her body. A dark energy. She grinned.

"You may be seated," she said as she lowered herself gracefully onto the throne, and the rest of the room followed. For just a second, she took in the moment: the feeling of _power_, sitting there with all eyes on her, complete attention focused on what she would say, what she would command. The magnitude and responsibility of it was not lost on her. She took a well-concealed deep breath, and began.

"Thank you for taking the time to look over these documents with your teams today. I'm certain that you understand the importance of this collaboration as it will help all of King Loki's citizens on Midgard, and ensure prosperity and opportunity for future generations. We know these changes cannot happen overnight, so I am eager to hear your thoughts on how we can best work together to achieve these mutual goals and bring glory to our kingdom."

She turned to the Russian delegate, a nonplussed expression cooly controlled as she looked him over. "Mr. Sokolov, since you seemed most eager to express your opinions this morning, would you like to begin?"

There was a thick silence in the room as half the delegates immediately focused all their attention on the singled-out man, and the other half tried desperately to look anywhere else. Mr. Sokolov stood, and Astrid noticed the spectacular shade of crimson slowly creeping up his neck from his collar.

"Your..._majesty,_" he growled, barely able to speak the word. "My associates and I have read the terms of your treaty, and we cannot sign these accords."

"What part concerns you?" Astrid asked too sweetly, in a way that made his hair stand on end.

"The part where you extract three trillion dollars in taxes from our wealthiest citizens to give it away to the poor," he snarled. "It's extortion. These men worked hard for their fortunes - these programs you are insisting we set up and maintain encourage laziness. Those people, they will simply stop working if they're given-"

"Food? Shelter? Medical attention?" Astrid cut him off, and his eyes bulged from his skull with indignation. She gave him a placating smile. "Forgive my interruption, Mr. Sokolov, but I can't see how you could be an authority on how _they _will behave if given the basic resources _you_ take for granted. Have you ever been poor?"

The blooming burgundy was now fully in his cheeks, and Astrid could see him struggling to keep his composure and not shout back at her. The repulsion in his eyes was delicious, having to behave himself for this _woman_, this _child_ who fucked her way into a position of power and was now about to appropriate his family's entire portfolio. Astrid forced herself to keep her expression impartial, but the dark energy that now danced through her reverberated with excitement so compelling that she felt like laughing. She had no fear of this impotent little man - who was he to decide _anything_ in her...in Loki's kingdom? _Just a little more pushing and he'll blow, _it cajoled her. _Just slow, patient encouragement. It will all be worth the wait._

"Your..._highness,"_ he growled out the title again like he was grinding his molars to powder with the strain of it. "I do not need to have been impoverished to understand what is best for my country. Deposing the business owners, government officials, and professionals will ruin the economy."

"No, Mr. Sokolov, it won't. It will simply ruin a few lives. Very few lives when compared to the masses of citizens who stand to gain so much from these programs designed specifically to help them, instead of all your country's wealth being funnelled to the privileged super-minority who also happen to run your government. Yourself included. But never fear - these programs are to be made available to everyone who finds themselves in need, even you." The slightest smug sneer crossed her lips.

A vein popped out on Sokolov's forehead, and his entire head turned the most lovely shade of scarlet. "You...can't possibly…" he stammered, his internal conflict beginning to boil over into his sweaty palms and short gasping breaths. Astrid's heart jumped into her throat. Almost…

He broke. "We will not allow it! We WILL NOT-"

The blue blast of energy ignited and shot across the room, connecting squarely with the Russian delegate's chest. Gasps and screams filled the room as he fell to the floor, groaning and whimpering while holding the burnt skin on his chest. Astrid stood firm, the scepter pointed at her victim, her face a marble mask of disdain. After a few seconds, she calmly reset, waiting for the reactions of the assembly. Several other ambassadors began to speak over each other, yelling at her, yelling at the other delegates. The noise level in the room gradually rose, the energy turned decidedly more negative as more and more delegates began to voice their opinions…

Until Astrid pounded the scepter on the ground.

"SILENCE!"

Her voice resonated and echoed through the chamber, magically amplified to the point where each person in the room could feel it vibrate through them, bringing them to an eerie silence.

As the room quieted, Loki watched her with almost rhapsodical alacrity, really struggling to maintain his composure. He wanted to laugh with glee, seeing the whole assembly in such turmoil and confusion - she was doing a magnificent job controlling their emotions, keeping them off balance and influencing them circuitously to follow her ultimate goal. He quickly glanced at Steven, who looked to be in as much shock as the delegates, literally on the edge of his seat watching the scene play out. He noticed Loki's gaze and turned to him, very much giving a look of "What the HELL is the plan here?!" Loki just smiled slyly, gave him a small nod, and turned his attention back to the queen.

Astrid sat regally on Loki's throne, the blue stone glowing in the scepter. With hardly a beat, she addressed the concerned room. "It seems the king has significantly more patience than myself when it comes to these matters, so let me be perfectly clear. We are not here to discuss whether or not these programs will be implemented. They will. That fact is not up for debate. You are all here to _assist _me and your King in how to put these policies in place expeditiously and realistically. I understand your resources are different, and each country has varying levels of need; if we have more information about _your_ abilities and what obstacles you face, the monarchy can help you overcome them. If you are unable or unwilling to handle this responsibility, I encourage you to resign immediately. Otherwise…"

She looked down at the man she had shot - he had fallen unconscious, but the shallow rise and fall of his chest showed he was not dead...yet. "Otherwise you will be removed by alternative means."

The thick silence was enough for her to know everyone in the room understood their role now. Once the feeling settled, Astrid smiled with breathtakingly beautiful charm that, if one hadn't seen what had happened in the previous few minutes, would have instantly won them over. "Will someone kindly take Mr. Sokolov to a hospital?" she chirped. "We have much more to discuss and the day will get away from us if we don't stay on topic."

Two staffers quickly grabbed Mr. Sokolov under his arms and dragged him from the room, and the rest of the delegates lowered themselves uneasily back into their seats.

Astrid sat comfortably, never once looking back to Loki to see his reaction or ask his guidance...just as he'd instructed her. "So, does anyone have something they'd like to bring to the attention of the assembly?"

As the silence stretched on, she continued to wait patiently for one of the delegates to address her question.

Finally, a petite figure stood. "Your majesty," her voice was small but strong, a bit too high pitched to be taken seriously at first but carried a certain gravitas that hinted at a deeper confidence. Chloe Barnes met Astrid's eyes, and Astrid nodded gravely to her.

"We...after we looked over the terms during our recess, we feel three months is too short a period for the United States to begin rolling out programs for over three hundred million people. Given the number of new staff that will need to be hired and trained for a program of this scale, even with the full support and funding of the monarchy, we believe six months would be more feasible, though we would like to re-evaluate our progress after four months to see what other resources we may need or changes we should consider before planning our move into the second phase outlined on page ten."

Astrid considered for a moment, then nodded. "That sounds reasonable. Did anyone else have the same concern?"

Several hands raised, and Astrid recognized the delegates from Brazil, China, and India were among them. "That's fair. Countries with a population over 100 million may extend your plans to six months instead of three, with a special re-evaluation at four months to gauge your progress." Astrid smiled at Chloe. "An excellent observation and request, Ms. Barnes. Thank you for contributing."

Chloe felt pride swell in her chest at the small praise from her queen, and she bowed respectfully before taking her seat once more.

Several hours later, quite a bit of productive debate and well-thought-out changes had been made to each country's mandate on a case-by-case basis. Loki and Steven had both contributed points and ideas throughout, but Astrid masterfully conducted the assembly - the dark energy that continued to flow into her from the scepter kept her focused and unafraid. She felt strong, respected, powerful enough to keep the leaders of all these countries in line while working with them to achieve her aim. Finally, she noticed the sky outside had turned dark.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I believe that is enough for today. I apologize for the...difficulties that occurred earlier, but I feel certain that another situation like that won't be necessary. Thank you all for your hard work and your dedication. I look forward to our next meeting." With that, she pounded the scepter on the dias one last time, and the meeting was adjourned.

The three of them stayed behind for a few minutes, shaking hands and speaking individually with several of the delegates before finally exiting behind the dias. Once the door was closed and they were out of sight, Astrid handed the scepter back to Loki. As he took it, the buzz of dark energy faded and disappeared, and she instantly felt weak, like crashing from an adrenaline high. With a soft smile, she leaned back on the wall and laughed. "Whew...what a rush!"

Steven looked gobsmacked, like he was seeing her for the first time. His mouth hung open in a way that made him look simple-minded, but it couldn't be helped. He was in awe of her. "Astrid...I...how?!" He put he hands on her upper arms, then instantly pulled her in for a hug. She returned it happily. Loki stiffened slightly, but forced himself to relax - his possessive nature often influenced his first reaction when someone touched something that was his, but it was...Steven. As much a part of this group as either himself or Astrid. With a silent sigh, he allowed the embrace to continue, and as he expected they parted after an appropriate amount of time.

"That was...when did you...oh my GOD Astrid when did you become such a badass?!" Steven sputtered, looking more like an excited schoolboy than the leader of the world's military. She just laughed and shrugged, glowing with positivity.

"My dear, you were marvelous." Loki mused as he took her hand in his. "Thank goodness I won't be needed at these tedious affairs anymore. I'm ever so grateful to be relieved of that duty." He smiled at his two proteges and put a large hand on each of their shoulders. "Let us retire to the lounge. I believe our dearly departed Mr. Stark left a 1997 Screaming Eagle Cabernet in his wine cellar that is said to be peaking and must be drunk soon."

He watched the two young mortals chat excitedly as they headed to the elevator. Loki closed his eyes for the briefest of moments, taking a deep breath and relishing in the renewed symphony of anguish floating through his mind. Malick's screams and cries returned in full force the moment Astrid touched the scepter, and he had been indulging in those dulcet tones all throughout the meeting. His only regret was that they softened as soon as she gave the scepter back to him. With one last contented exhale, and a searing excitement at the knowledge that his beautiful queen was just starting to tap into her potential, he followed them to join in their celebration.

Astrid awoke to the sounds of birds chirping outside her window, the morning light streaming through the half-open blinds and marking the far wall with dots of bright illumination. She sighed beatifically and rolled onto her back, stretching her limbs as far as she could before relaxing back into her comfortable state. Blearily, she opened her eyes, observing the quaint room around her - not the luxurious quarters in the Palace of Midgard, but a small, cozy cottage. The smell of pine and wet dirt wafted through the open panes as the early morning dew evaporated from the forest floor, and the sound of gentle waves lapping up on the gravel shores of the lake harmonized with the birdsong and the soft wind.

Astrid's bare feet touched the soft carpet as she stood from the bed, and she took a moment to wiggle her toes in the shag before standing and making her way to the window. With a deep inhale of fresh air and a calm smile, she pushed open the shutters into the brilliant sunshine. The warmth of it covered her face before she opened her eyes fully and looked out at the view before her - magnificent mountains surrounded the small house on all sides, covered in all varieties of evergreens and shrubs with patches of rich brown earth spread throughout like quilted patterns; the clear fresh water of the alpine lake shimmered serenely just yards from the front steps; the sky stretched bright blue for eternity, with hints of wispy clouds and flocks of musical birds the only things that shared its infinite space.

She felt so at peace, gazing out onto this mountain paradise. Safe. Happy. For a moment, she was sure nothing could ever go wrong.

But then she felt like something was off. The smell was...different, flatter. The sky wasn't as blue as it should be. The birdsong seemed to be repeating the same three phrases exactly.

Then...what simply felt off at first turned obvious when the lake began to boil. The trees ignited all at once, and Astrid felt a searing hot wave of air hit her as the paradise around her transformed into an inferno.

Her paradise. Her happy place. Up in flames. She screamed and fell to her knees, grasping at her hair and crying.

Suddenly the roof and walls were ripped from around her, leaving her terrified and cowering in the middle of a floor that had no house. She looked up at the now red sky, but most of it was blocked out by a gargantuan shadow, evil red eyes glowing out of the darkness, two sinister horns curling from a scalp that oozed with black ichor, the foul slick dripping over its shoulders and down its body marked with twisted scars along its skin. It reached out with a huge blue hand, black fingernails coming toward her faster than she could escape.

Still, she tried. She kicked and flailed as its fingers wrapped around her, and she was shocked by a cold so intense the breath caught in her lungs. She began to freeze, her skin turning frostbitten black as he lifted her off the ground and raised her to his face.

"_My...darling,_" his low voice was more of a sensation than a sound, and his words shook through her body even as the frozen shards pierced her organs. "_I...will give you...everything._"

She felt ice crystals forming in her eyes as the last of her body was overtaken by the monster's cold, and she gave in to the empty nothingness of death. And then...

Chunks began to crack off her frozen form, each piece melting and crawling up the monster's arm like millions of tiny insects. Her entire body dissolved in his hand, and the near-liquid spread across his chest, up his neck, and all across his back. His fanged mouth curled into a sinister grin, his demonic red eyes dancing with excitement as the slithering particles gathered and built on themselves, forming into shapes on his back, digging into his skin and connecting with his muscles and nerves. He howled in pain, but it was a wail of victory, not panic, tinged with animalistic enjoyment;

Slowly, what was once her body became huge, black wings sprouting from his shoulder blades, and the monster opened them wide and threw his head back with a terrifying laugh. She was the wings...she could feel her connection to him, tied into every small part of his physiology. It was the greatest, most intense pleasure she'd ever experienced, absorbed by his body, controlled by his mind. _Yes_… she thought to him softly as he commanded her to fly. She beat the wings down, lifting him into the heavens, eager to comply with his wishes. _Please...please...anything for you…_

Astrid gasped and bolted awake.


	6. Chapter 6 - Guarded

_**Hi everyone! Long time no see. :) But I've got TWO new chapters for you, so I hope that makes up for it.**_

_**I post more regularly on Tumblr and AO3. I'll include the links here if you want to check those out. Thanks!**_

_**\- Rose**_

_**Tumblr: **_ blog/emeraldrosequartz

_**AO3: **_ /users/EmeraldRoseQuartz/works

Charlie's head began to throb as he finished the Extra Hard sudoku puzzle. It had been another quiet, uneventful night. For the last three days, he had been guarding this closet 16 hours at a time, only being relieved by Steven himself to sleep. The entire time, it had been completely silent...he wondered if the man inside needed water or food - or a bathroom - but not a peep, or a bang on the door. And from what King Loki had said...this man wasn't going to make it out of that closet alive.

This was, simultaneously, the strangest, most disturbing, and most boring assignment he'd ever been given. In his 20 years of military experience, he'd never been forced to sit underground alone for an extended period of time like this. Still, it beat being shot at. And since Steven had convinced him to join the Global Security Forces (now that it had a name), he had seen, heard, and experienced aliens, magic, princes, mind control…a little boredom was welcome at this point.

Charlie shook his head and put aside his doubts. Soldiers follow orders, and that's what he was here to do. And he trusted Steven, trusted his ethics and morals. Anything Steven would do was leagues below what Charlie himself had done. With a sigh, he leaned back in the metal chair and continued to work his way through his third Sudoku book.

A short moment later, the door down the hallway opened, and Steven walked through to relieve him for the night.

"Evening, Charlie," Steven greeted him with a wave. "Anything exciting happen?"

"Not a thing," Charlie answered, removing his reading glasses and blinking to re-focus his grey eyes in the harsh light. Another sign of age...how long it took for his eyes to focus at distance. He stood and extended his hand toward Steven.

Steven shook his hand and smiled, the slightest hint of exhaustion darkening his features. "Glad to hear it. Always nice to take a step back into somewhere quiet - the rest of the world is still in chaos…"

"I could go for a little chaos," Charlie chuckled as he stretched, feeling the strain in his joints from so much inactivity. "So...how much longer do you think our guest is going to be in there? Not that I don't appreciate the personal assignment, but…" His shoulders audibly popped as his arms reached above his head, and his muscles burned with the movement - it felt so good to move after the long sedentary hours.

Steven chuckled and patted his friend on the shoulder. "I'll ask Loki next time I see him - I can't imagine it could be much longer...and I'll admit I'm not looking forward to seeing what's left of that asshole in there. But it serves him right for trying to melt the Eastern Seaboard." The slightest edge of menace crept into Steven's voice, something that was so uncharacteristic of the boy that Charlie had to take a beat and absorb the shock of it. Sure, Malick has almost taken _his _life as well - he had also been on the ground at the Battle of New York, after all - and Charlie was, in all honesty, _glad _that this scum was being given his just desserts.

Charlie had seen a lot in his life. Enlisted at 18, he had seen his fair share of the world and the war that came with him wherever he was deployed. Some of what he did was public...some was not. And it was in those hidden moments he saw the true measure of the men he served with. He had not met a single person who hadn't lost some faith in a better future after these unseen atrocities...until Steven. Even deep behind enemy lines, when "kill or be killed" barely scratched the surface of what they faced, he'd always seen the light. Charlie had taken the boy under his wing, so to speak, to try and understand _how_, maybe learn it for himself someday. And every time, he had been stunned by his integrity and purity.

Two tours in a hot desert hell of a war zone hadn't dampened Steven's positivity, even hearing what had happened to his sister didn't darken his spirit. But, two weeks with Loki, and now Steven seemed...different.

"How are you feeling, General Foster?" Charlie asked. He watched Steven's face and listened carefully, looking for the signs of mental health disorders: problems concentrating, anger, dissociation, fidgeting...

"_General Foster_? Chuck, you can call me Steven. In fact, please do. I'm still not used to the title…"

"OK, Steven. So what's up?"

"Nothing's up. It's just...it's a LOT." Steven leaned against the wall, crossing his arms and drawing one foot up. "You know, two weeks ago I was on leave playing Call of Duty in my apartment and waiting for my next orders. Next thing I know responsible for ALL of the world's nuclear weapons, military operations, rebuilding efforts…it's an unbelievable amount of work and I have NO idea what I'm doing or who I can trust. Except Loki and Astrid...and you. All I wanted was an opportunity to show that _asshole_ Thor what happens to guys who emotionally abuse my sister. And I DID it and now...and...well, now what I'm looking forward to most is relieving a deserving soldier and friend from a VERY dull guard duty and having some time to myself." He let out a quiet, nervous laugh and turned his gaze down.

Charlie just grinned. Yup, Steven was DEFINITELY fucked up about all this. The kid had gotten himself into this mess, but if anyone could make sense of it and make it through, it was Foster. Still, Charlie worried for him - even for someone as stalwart as Steven, this was a lot to handle.

"Well, you better get some rest. I'll meet you back in here in 8 hours," Steven said, his usual friendliness bubbling up and covering over the open wound of his heartfelt admission.

Just as they were about to part ways, the hall door violently swung open. Loki burst through, followed by a swarming team of people wearing biohazard suits and pushing a gurney. The noise was surprisingly loud in the small, enclosed space, echoing off the bleak walls in an unsettling cacophony. Loki's presence instantly filled the area with an intense energy - his eyes glittered in the harsh fluorescent lights, and his porcelain features were washed with an unnatural paleness. The expression he wore struck a note of terror in Charlie - focused, feral...like he could and _would_ disintegrate anything that got in his way. His long legs carried him forward with surprising speed, and the rest of his cadre struggled to match the pace. The scepter glowed menacingly as he approached.

Steven's face changed for just a moment, but Charlie noticed his eyebrows peak and his jaw tighten for a split second before he fell into the practiced expression of strict attention. Charlie quickly turned to face the king and stood at attention as well, pushing aside the image to analyze later. Was that fear, or...?

"Fraser. Foster." Loki greeted them with a smile more dangerous than it was friendly.

"Sir," they said in unison.

Loki halted in front of them as the rest of his entourage caught up. "Any news?"

"No, sir," Charlie answered. "It's been quiet since you last saw him."

"Thank you. You are relieved, Mr. Fraser," Loki said sternly, and Charlie saluted, walking past the king toward the exit through the hustling mass of equipment and crinkling bodysuits. His breath held in his chest as he forced himself to maintain his composure, his gut screaming that he shouldn't leave Steven alone. Loki's eyes watched him as he passed, and just as Charlie was about to reach the door...

"Unless…"

The king's voice was unusually soft in contrast to the dissonance of his sterilized minions. It dripped with tantalizing, manic delight. "...you'd like to see what happened to the man you've been guarding?"

Charlie stopped immediately, resisting the urge to freeze in place as he slowly turned around. He caught a glimpse of Steven's face, the normally healthy skin tone almost as pale as the King's, his pupils shrinking down so far that his irises appeared as empty, static pools of chocolate brown; a dutiful look of stoic determination stayed plastered across his features.

If only for Steven's sake...Charlie walked forward and stood next to his young friend. Loki's grin widened, looking simultaneously thrilled and frighteningly sinister.

"Excellent. Stand back…"

The biohazard team stopped their preparations, and the hall was suddenly completely quiet. The latch "clicked" and unlocked by itself, and for the first time in three days, the door slowly opened.

The light didn't penetrate deep enough into the room to bring anything into view - it seemed the bulb that had been hanging in the closet was gone - but the first thing everyone noticed was the smell: filth, utterly overwhelming and pervasive. The suited team turned on flashlights and Charlie _almost_ vomited. Every sort of human waste and viscera suffused the small closet, piled on the floor, smeared on the walls. The metal chair was dented and broken, and by the holes in the drywall it looked like it had been thrown many, many times. And in the center of the room, a crumpled body glistening in the beams laid motionless...except for the shallow breathing.

Even Loki seemed taken aback by the scene in front of him for several seconds, pupils blown black and features twisted into an expression of derelict delight. Charlie hazarded a glance to Steven, whose face remained utterly frozen, the only movement coming from the slight shifting in his eyes as he strained to keep them open and focused forward. Slowly, disturbingly, the grin returned to Loki's face.

"Get him. Take him to medical and clean him up."

The team moved forward and began their work, and Loki stepped back, turning toward the two soldiers. Charlie did his best to keep his expression fixed, but he knew the disgust and terror would not be completely hidden no matter what he did. Loki, on the other hand, looked almost passive...satisfied, and amused at the mortals' discomfort.

"What is it, Fraser? You thought three days of torture was enough for him? Surely not." he snarled. "Death will be a welcome joy by the time he's granted enough mercy to embrace it." Loki turned to Charlie again, eyes locked on him, challenging him. "It is what he deserves, is it not?"

Even Charlie couldn't get himself to speak without hesitation this time. _No one deserves that._ Is what he wanted to say. But he stopped himself quickly, the words caught in his throat, and he stuttered, "Y-yes, sir."

Loki nodded. "Thank you, Fraser. You are dismissed." Charlie saluted and walked away, leaving Steven and the King of Midgard alone with the clean-up team. But as he pushed open the door, he turned back just long enough to see Steven and Loki staring intensely at each other, Steven perceptibly shaking, breath jagged, hands fisted at his sides, his face drained of all color and frozen in an expression of fear and pain and...something more. Loki reached up and gently took Steven's cheek in his palm, comfortingly, saying something Charlie couldn't hear over the bustle of activity with a soft, almost apologetic smile.

Charlie passed through the door and let it close behind him.

"Steven?"

_What...was that? How is Malick still alive?_

"Look at me. Just look at me. Everything will be alright." Loki's soothing voice sounded far away, muted by the sound of rushing blood filling Steven's ears as he processed what he'd just seen.

_That man should be dead. He should have died. _

"It's alright, Steven. Just breathe. You're fine."

_It would be better if he were dead._

Steven froze completely, unable to respond or move - the image of what was in that closet playing on repeat through his mind.

Suddenly, he was jarred from the unstoppable horrors when he felt something gently touch his cheek, and his eyes snapped into focus. Loki was gazing nervously at him, those infinite crystal blue irises shimmering in the fluorescent light. His breath stopped in his chest, the sheer magnitude of the moment seeming to stop the flow of time.

"It's ok, Steven. I'm here."

"Loki…" Steven's voice was hardly a whisper. "I...I…"

"Shhhh. Just come with me."


	7. Chapter 7 - Event Horizon

_**So, I lied. I actually had THREE chapters to post here. So one more after this, you lucky reader! Enjoy. :)**_

_**\- Rose**_

Steven didn't remember how they got to the lounge at the top of the tower; the next moment he recalled with any clarity, he was sitting on the low-slung couch with a glass of water in his hand, the ice cubes audibly clinking in the silence of the room.

Astrid was leaning forward on her thighs in front of him, sitting on the sofa, her eyes glistening with concern and watching his every expression. The velvety fabric of her Asgardian-style dress draped off her hunched shoulders like a shimmering aquamarine waterfall cascading from under her hair. Her posture on the couch contradicted the formal, straight-backed poise she'd adopted lately; it was much more reminiscent of the scientist he'd met hours before the Battle - anxious, focused, and calculating.

Steven noticed Loki sat next to her, tracing small, comforting circles on her back, but he was obviously distressed. The scepter rested on the coffee table between the three of them, and the swirling blue stone cast its ever-present azure shadow on the polished wood and glass. Even in his near-catatonic state, Steven firmly avoided looking directly at it, almost out of instinct, it seemed.

Occasionally Astrid and Loki would talk to each other, but Steven's rattled mind couldn't make out the words. He could understand the tone, though - Astrid sounded collected and analytical; Loki sounded shaken, often snapping his responses, then breathing heavily and needing a moment to regain his composure.

Steven continued to stare out through the huge glass window, gaze unfocused. What was in that closet kept him hostage, playing again and again while his broken psyche struggled to comprehend it.

Suddenly, in the static din of it all, he understood something Astrid said, muffled like she was speaking through a thick blanket: "Yes. Do it." _Wha- do what? _Steven thought, but before he could make sense of it, there was a sharp pain in his chest. His head swam, the world went dark, and he felt himself fall backward into an internal abyss.

If he'd been in a better state, if he could have broken away from the relentless terrors, he would have panicked, would have fought and tried to regain control...instead, his traumatized mind surrendered instantly, and he drifted helplessly down into the darkness. Bizarrely, Steven felt immense relief as he gave in; the acceptance of submission, to be overwhelmed and conquered, forced to succumb to a power greater than his own, to just let go...it was, in its own strange way, wonderful. The scene continued to play out, but now it felt disconnected and remote. And when the last of his resistance dissolved, he curled himself away, safe, finally able to rest.

Outwardly, Steven's body relaxed, he breathed more easily, and his normally dark brown eyes glowed with sickly grey-blue. The "second him" blinked slowly but said nothing, staring blankly at Astrid and Loki across from him.

"Steven, can you hear me?" Loki's voice was steady and strong, different from before. Steven enjoyed the warm feeling it gave him - though he made no effort to respond, the power of it was a comfort, a tether to reality.

So it surprised him when he heard his own voice say, "Yes." Purely out of curiosity, he tried to lift his arms or turn his head. Nothing happened.

_What's going on?_ Steven thought listlessly, without fear or panic, just a dull interest in why his body wouldn't follow his command. _Why can't I move?_

"I used the scepter on you, Steven," Loki kept his voice controlled. "You stopped responding. I...Astrid and I thought we could help if I reached your mind directly."

Astrid held Loki's hand in hers, their fingers intertwined tightly, knuckles white with tension. Steven could barely see it out of the corner of his uncontrolled eye, but he felt a bloom of passion, a strange loyalty to their coupling. These two incredible people...so much bigger than himself...

"Steven," Astrid said softly. "You won't be able to speak on your own. Just think about what you want to say and Loki will hear you."

_Loki...Malick...the closet...three days...the blood was…_ Steven started to slip back into his inundated stupor, but before he completely lost himself, a shock of energy bolted through his body - it wasn't painful; in fact, it reminded him of when he licked the top of a 9V battery as a child, but through his entire nervous system. It immediately halted his destructive train of thought.

"Stop, Steven. Focus on me." Loki's voice was low and commanding, and his endless blue eyes drew him in like gravity. The images still swirled around him, but with Loki demanding his attention, and his gaze locked forward with no ability to look away, Steven found himself captivated, reveling in the feeling of being completely open and vulnerable to his king...safe, protected, cared for.

Reading Steven's emotions, Loki exhaled heavily, and Astrid couldn't tell if it was from relief or regret.

Though he made himself maintain the facade of calm, Loki was even more troubled now that he was seeing what had happened in the basement from Steven's perspective, through Steven's memories.

Loki hadn't meant to harm Steven. He thought Steven would have found the sight of their would-be murderer as tantalizing as he had - to see what happened to the man who had almost killed millions, watch him be utterly destroyed both physically and mentally, never able to threaten them or anyone else ever again.

Loki should have considered Steven had _never_ been exposed to THAT level of torture...a level that Loki himself had both doled out _and_ experienced personally at the hands of Thanos. In his mind, it was normal...he'd overlooked Steven's preparedness. The idea that the sight would cause him to completely shut down never crossed his mind...but thinking back, it seemed ridiculous to assume that it _wouldn't_ have affected him badly. As soon as Loki saw that dead look in Steven's usually bright eyes, noticed his skin had gone ashen, found he wasn't responding to Loki's words...that was a new level of fear, of guilt, of realizing one's mistake far too late.

Steven was completely terrified - of what was in the closet, of course, but also of...Loki. Moreso of Loki. He was afraid of the sheer physical power Loki possessed, of his combat ability, of his strategic prowess and unfathomable intelligence, of the unbelievable magic he controlled like it was second-nature.

Of the scepter, and how he wielded it.

Of how he could do something like that to another person, even someone like Malick.

But at the same time, he was so in awe of the God of Mischief, so disbelieving that someone LIKE THAT was taking an interest in _him_...and for no reason he could ascertain.

Loki sensed Steven's feelings for Astrid, too - Steven understood Astrid; they were both young and human, thrown into this madness by fate. But even though he more-closely related to her, he was utterly _amazed_ by her, as much as Loki - how she adapted, the machines she built and what they could do, her unstoppable willpower. She was objectively _incredible_. And beautiful. And in love with the god he found irresistible. It made him want her even more.

Steven's heart was bursting with loyalty and dedication to his king and queen, fueling a driving desire to help them in their mission. And the only thing that could make him run...was if they lost his trust.

With another sigh, Loki looked at Astrid and moved to stand. "We should walk. That will help," he said. They each reached out with their free hand to help Steven up, and Astrid's breath caught as she felt the indomitable soldier shaking. He followed them to the promenade outside.

Though Steven wasn't controlling his body, the movement itself felt good. The high winds at the top of the tower ruffled his hair and made breathing easier, and as his body relaxed, so did his mind. They walked back and forth in silence, and each time the memories of the closet began to surface, Loki would draw his attention away from them, sometimes shocking him with the painless jolt, sometimes stopping to hold his gaze and talk him through the nightmare until he returned to the safe, comfortable feeling. Before long, the disturbing images felt like a distant dream.

After a quiet stretch, Steven gathered his thoughts for the first time in hours, and was able to send a mental message to Loki.

_I think...I'm OK now._

Loki stopped, and Astrid stayed with him, still watching with matronly apprehension.

"You're sure?" Loki asked.

_Yes,_ Steven replied, a hint of uncertainty apparent even in his thoughts, but outwardly he remained unexpressive,

Loki sighed, nodded, closed his eyes, and cut the connection. Steven felt himself "refill" his body, and he slumped as he was given back control. Astrid and Loki each wrapped an arm around his waist, the additional support being necessary to aid his unsteady steps, but Steven noticed with some surprise that the feeling of their touch electrified him in a wonderful, disturbing way. He blinked several times as his eyes returned to their natural coffee brown, and he looked at the two with a strange combination of terror, gratitude, and awe.

"Steven," Astrid said softly as she reached up and touched his cheek. "Are you OK?"

He just nodded, swallowing hard. With great care, they walked inside and sat back down on the couch, Steven between them.

He worked hard to normalize his breathing, taking measured, full breaths. Astrid kept her hand on Steven's thigh and watched him intently, her face a portrait of guilt, grief, and acceptance.

"I'm so sorry…" she said seriously, gaze never wavering. "You understand now, what it's like...what we're up against…"

Steven's body began to shake softly again, his mind spinning with the consequences of this new reality. He was quiet for a long while, working to still himself before speaking. Loki's hand remained on his shoulder, and almost instinctively Steven leaned into him; their foreheads touched, and Loki took a shivering breath, soothed by the contact and the weight of him, as though the gesture alone were a tacit forgiveness. Astrid watched the intimate gesture with surprise and interest; again, the jealousy she expected never manifested. Instead, the moment felt beautiful and right - two people offering and receiving comfort, relaxing in trust, releasing fears and being vulnerable. An act of love, between two people she...also loved…

The realization hit her like a heavy, dull knife.

"I want to…" Steven began, drawing a deep breath and looking at Astrid. "I want to believe that this is the right thing to do." His words cracked with emotion as he spoke. "But how can THAT be right?"

Astrid smiled sadly back with as much comfort as she could, giving his thigh a gentle squeeze. "I know...I know how hard it is to see it, and how much harder is it to accept it. Steven...it tore me apart when I understood what this would take. I wish I could go back, sometimes…" Astrid's voice trembled, her heart pounding, remembering the night she had _asked_ to have the stone used on her, never imagining what that choice would mean for her life, what she had to be willing to do… "But it's done, we're here. It's dangerous; it's _horrendous_. But it's where we need to be to help _everyone_...to save the world. They're counting on us to make this happen. People like Malick...they aren't going to change their mind - they _believe_ in what they're doing just as strongly as we do. And they don't respond to anything short of the same violence and tactics they use themselves. God, I wish there were another way, I do...but until I figure out what that other way is, we need to keep them under control, whatever it takes."

Astrid gave a pleading look to Loki over Steven's shoulder, and her sapphire eyes gleamed with all the hope, fear, and absolute trust she felt for him, the faith that their love was enough to make this kingdom prosper, willing it to be true. Then she looked back into Steven's eyes, and the glacier in his chest cracked. He breathed deeper, gaze locked to hers, feeling himself relax - if only slightly.

Then he turned back to Loki, the fear apparent, but also the hope and trust - a look so similar to Astrid and yet so different in his strong, brown eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Steven," Loki said softly, his throat tight. "I brought you into this without considering whether you were ready. I just assumed…"

His face twisted with self-hatred, barely containing the underlying anguish that threatened to undo him.

"It's OK," Steven said. "I just-I know. I've always known, somewhere...this is what it takes. This is war...kill or be killed. It's what happens when high-level players get captured..."

"_That will NEVER happen to you_." Loki's sudden anger and protectiveness flared up so unexpectedly that both Steven and Astrid turned to him in stunned silence. Steven felt Astrid's hand clench on his thigh reflexively, but neither dared to look away from the Asgardian who appeared on the edge of breaking down, painfully looking between the two as he tried to come to terms with the suddenly overwhelming understanding of what he felt.

Loki had never feared failure. He didn't fear death; he gave himself to it. He didn't fear the Other, or even the wrath of Thanos, if he was honest. But the thought of either of them being captured, tortured...killed...their loss would be unforgivable, a tragedy for their entire species...and one he knew he could not personally endure. These delicate mortals who had dedicated their _lives_ to him, so full of belief and ambition, not for themselves, but for their planet. He would bring all the creatures of the universe to their _knees_ to save them. He would make this Kingdom thrive _for them_, because even if they lived long, healthy lives, it would be just a moment for him...someday soon, he would have nothing but their memories, and the legacy of what they had built together.

For a long while, no one spoke. They couldn't. There were no words that could convey the feelings that each felt for the other two...until Astrid took a deep breath and stood. They both needed her strength to get through this, and she would give it to them.

Loki and Steven watched as she sat herself between the two of them, then she softly pulled them both close to her, resting their heads on her shoulders and holding them to her gently, her fingers pushing through their hair. She felt both exhale and relax in her arms, taking comfort in her open intimacy.

_This is crazy..._she thought, feeling her body quiver with adrenaline as she stared out at the skyline, trying to collect herself as they leaned into her. She took another trembling breath and closed her eyes as she felt two pairs of arms wrap around her torso, clinging to her tightly.

Steven and Loki's eyes, conversely, were wide open, locked on each other with desperation, uncertainty, anticipation...the King's gaze no longer radiated the terrified fury of impending loss, but the intense stare of a man questioning a deeply transformative decision. That look became an unspoken conversation between them, nothing said but everything understood…

Behind Astrid's back, Loki and Steven's fingers brushed tentatively before entwining together, and Loki used the leverage of their grip to pull Astrid and Steven closer to him.

Loki turned his face to the graceful slope where Astrid's shoulder met her neck. He nuzzled her softly, rubbing his cheek and nose against her, then began to kiss the vulnerable skin, making her shudder. Steven watched the goosebumps blossom down her arms and felt her stiffen, pulling them into her instinctively. His tired, rattled mind succumbed to the visual and tactile cues, and with abating hesitation, he turned his attention to Astrid.

Steven mirrored his king, and brought his lips to the opposite side of Astrid's long neck, his short stubble scratching the sensitive area as he pressed against her. Astrid took a sharp breath, that fine sheen of resistance rapidly dissolving as their dual attentions burst the wellspring of desire that had been building within her for weeks, flooding her with hunger. She surrendered to it.

Loki kissed up her jaw and tempted her mouth to his, finally consuming her soft lips as she turned toward him and eagerly reciprocated. The movement exposed more of her neck to Steven, and he leaned in greedily, nipping and sucking at the tender flesh behind her ear. His hand slid upward to her breast, as Loki's moved down between her legs.

Groans of passion escaped Astrid's lips and vibrated through Loki's mouth as their hands explored each region of her body. Steven's strong fingers slid along the velvety fabric of her bodice and massaged her breasts, pinching her nipples hard enough to make her squirm, while Loki's digits pressed against her most sensitive area teasingly, and Astrid lifted her hips to try and get more sensation through the thick folds of the long gown covering her lap. Loki smiled against her, breaking their kiss to focus on her neck once again...and to get the reach to pull up the long hem of her dress. All the while, she could feel their hands together behind her, grasping at each other with as much desperation as they had for her.

Astrid turned toward Steven, her hooded eyes exposing her lust for him, and Steven eagerly brought his lips to hers, enjoying the arch of her body, encouraging his continued attention to her chest. She gripped his short hair - so different in weight and length from Loki's - and she held on tightly to keep his kiss on her as she felt her king kneeling between her legs.

Dress completely gathered above her hips, Astrid's lacy panties disintegrated in a hiss of silk as Loki ripped them away. He moved his face forward, smelling her scent and feeling the raw feral urge to fuck her senseless. But first...he placed an open-mouthed kiss over her pussy, sliding a wide, flat tongue bottom-to-top and ending at her glistening pearl. He flicked it with the tip of his tongue, using his lips and teeth to tantalize her with short bursts of stimulation, and he smiled again as she groaned and yelped into Steven's mouth while he worked. Then he slid one hand up Steven's leg, feeling the tensing muscles beneath his pants, and rubbed the bulge that strained against his clothing.

Astrid's high-pitched whimpers harmonized with Steven's low grunts, and Loki pushed two fingers slowly into her channel, caressing the familiar spot of smooth flesh with a soft but persistent come-hither movement. He explored her netherlips with his mouth and fondled Steven's hard cock until the poor man was whining with frustration and thrusting almost as enthusiastically as his queen.

Satisfied she was slick and ready, Loki pulled back and grinned at their cries of protest when he ceased his ministrations and stood. They broke their kiss, panting and disheveled, holding hands in shocked solidarity and watching the Asgardian as he moved to sit on the other side of Steven. With a sidelong glance, Loki locked eyes with Astrid for a split second as the grin changed, twisted in the way that was now so familiar…

THAT smile.

Her heart stopped, frozen with the apprehension of what that smile promised, and she watched as her king turned Steven's face to him with a single finger on his chin, then captured his lips in a kiss of fiery passion.

Steven gasped sharply and went rigid, then instantly melted into the act, overcome by the firm pressure and strikingly different feel of Loki's masculine form, the strength of the kiss thrilling in its newness. The smell and taste of Astrid on Loki's mouth drove him crazy, her pheromones causing his synapses to fire off and release his own lusty chemicals, urging him to reciprocate and press himself into his king. But his hand never left Astrid's.

She reached over and undid Steven's pants, letting his desperate cock finally stand triumphantly in the open air. The thin skin of his shaft stretched tightly over his engorged manhood, and she took him in her hand. She began to pump slowly, and Loki's hand joined hers, squeezing her _and him_ together, never slowing the erotic attack of his furious kiss with Steven while moving with her.

Steven's helpless and eager groans intensified, losing himself in the waves of pleasure until Loki stopped, leaning his forehead against Steven's and breathing heavily, obviously trying to keep himself from ravishing one or both of them. They watched him, following the king's lead in this new adventure and silently craving what would come next. With a chuckle, he looked at them both, narrowed his eyes, and spoke.

"Astrid, on the ground. Steven...mount her."

Astrid froze for just a moment. A symphony of emotions flowed through her - not fear, not anger, not jealousy, _definitely_ arousal, but also trepidation at the magnitude of what this carnal act would mean. For her. For Loki. For Steven. There would be no coming back from this, no way to make things the way they were ever again. This was the event horizon. The point from which there was no return. Everything - the world, the monarchy, the universe, herself - would be different, changed beyond repair, after this.

And she wasn't sure how she _should_ feel about it, or what it would mean for the future. Could she love both of them? Could they love each other? Could they both love her? And if not...what then?

But then, Loki's eyes met hers once again, cobalt blue and full of fire. The look was a challenge, a promise, a comfort, and a damnation all at once. And despite her concern, despite all she had learned and all she had been through in such a short period of time, she knew she had her answer.

For the second time in less than a month, she made a choice that would alter her life forever.

She lowered herself to the ground.


	8. Chapter 8 - Third

_**Breathe deep, now. Here comes the good stuff. :)**_

_** \- Rose**_

Steven's heart thundered in his chest when he saw Astrid slide from the couch onto the floor.

_Mount her…_ Loki's dark, deep voice echoed in his mind, the command dripping with dominance and lust. It was a voice he had longed to hear when in the solitude of his own quarters at night, his imagination spinning with fantasies of his king and queen as he brought himself to climax.

But now that the moment he'd dreamed about was _actually_ happening - he hesitated.

Astrid was a vision, laying on her back, the dress gathered above her waist, her body open and flushed with need. Her exposed center gleamed with Loki's saliva and her own arousal, and her eyes watched him with a mix of trepidation, desire, and...something else. Gravitas, perhaps - an understanding of what this meant and an acceptance of the consequences. A surety that she knew what she was doing, and wanted it.

Steven longed to look at Loki as well, to see his expression - not only to be _absolutely sure_ about what he was being told to do, but also to see if that same look was on his king's face. But try as he might to turn away, his eyes were glued to Astrid's lithe form, urging him to join her, be with her, go inside her in the most intimate way and take pleasure from the supple flower blossoming in front of him.

And still, he couldn't move. He _yearned_ to, desperately; to fall to his knees and push himself into those soft tissues and watch her writhe around his cock until both of them came apart. But...there was still something stopping him.

Until Loki's arms wrapped around his chest.

"Why do you delay, Steven?" Loki's breath whispered the words almost soundlessly into his ear, though the growl was still apparent in his airy tone. Steven reacted by shivering violently and taking a sharp, ragged breath.

Loki slid his hands down Steven's pectorals and over the chiseled stomach that was hidden underneath his uniform. "Does the thought of ravaging her give you pause?" he teased maliciously.

Steven's throat was so tight he could hardly make a sound, but being held close to Loki calmed him enough to speak. "She's so beautiful…" he barely managed, but any further words were halted when Loki's hand wrapped around his manhood and began to pull at him expertly. Like a man with centuries of experience.

"Yes..." Loki said, his voice like gravel and sin. "She is the most beautiful, powerful, desirable woman in the world. And she wants _you_, Steven. Don't you want her?"

"Yes," Steven's voice hitched as Loki continued to pump him slowly, squeezing him at just the right time in all the right places to make his toes curl with each stroke.

"Look at her," Loki's powerful baritone issued another command, and the soldier instantly obeyed.

He had never _stopped_ looking at her, but now his eyes fell on her unblinkingly, the building heat in his loins compelling him to submit to Loki's chocolate silk voice, to bury himself in Astrid's sweet cunt and make her scream, to do _anything _his king demanded of him...he felt almost lightheaded as his legs began to shake with the pleasure Loki drew from his erection. An involuntary keening moan escaped his lips, and Loki held him tighter.

"She is yours now, Steven," Loki said, and Steven felt himself being pushed off the couch. He made no attempt to resist. "And you are hers. As much as the both of you...are _mine_."

All of the furniture around them flew to the edges of the room.

—-

Astrid's chest heaved as her breathing sped to near hyperventilation, seeing the two men leaning down over her, caging her body. She wanted this _so_ badly...and having to lie there, hearing those dirty, hushed words whispered into Steven's ear _about her_, and simply watching as Loki, _her Loki_ \- her husband, her lover, her king, her sun and moon, her everything - wantonly pleasured the devastatingly handsome young soldier, still in full uniform with his impressive cock pulled out through the open fly of his pants and held in Loki's huge, strong hand...it was the single-most erotic thing she'd ever witnessed. And now, as that gorgeous hand continued to stroke Steven's painfully erect penis, Loki moved them both between her legs and aligned the thick girth with Astrid's opening.

Steven's face was now so close to hers, his features washed with lust and that dreamy glaze of uncertainty and submission. His deep brown eyes swam with desire, his chiseled jaw clenched and tightened with each torturous ministration from Loki's hand. His forehead beaded with sweat that began to trickle down his temples - he was coming undone, and she wanted more than anything to be the one to gather him.

Loki pushed his hips forward into Steven's, and Steven's cock pressed against Astrid's center. Both of them let out a desperate moan at the contact, and secretly Astrid both hated and adored Loki for making them mad with longing for each other before they coupled for the first time.

Loki pulled Steven back, then again urged him forward with his hips, the very tip of the soldier's velvety glans entering her channel but going no further. Astrid felt her willpower breaking, tears beginning to fill her eyes in want. The teasing at her entrance was almost unbearable. She flexed her hips upward, trying to draw him in, but Loki again held him off.

"Do you feel that, Steven? Can you feel how badly she wants you inside her? How gorgeously she moans for you?" Loki's strong arms kept him above Astrid, and she could feel the poor man shaking with the same need she felt.

"Yes…" Steven said, his voice small.

"What do you think she'll do once you're inside her? Once you split her wide with this magnificent cock of yours?" His mouth tickled the shell of Steven's ear, but those malicious, sadistic blue eyes watched Astrid as he spoke. "Do you think she'll beg for you to make her come? Will she cry out? Will she call your name in a fit of passion?"

Another push, and again Steven spread her netherlips and slid along her wet opening. Astrid groaned hungrily and thrust her hips upward, only to be denied a third time. On the verge of crying with frustration, she gripped the folds of her dress and dug her heels into the floor.

"Oooh...she's desperate for you, Steven. Perhaps you _should_ make her beg…" The _sound_ of those words! Loki was the _devil_, literally perching over Steven's shoulder and urging him on.

Steven's forehead dropped to hers, eyes open and staring like he was about to devour her. She couldn't have looked away if her life depended on it.

"Beg me for it. Now."

There was a surprising new strength in his voice - deep, and shaken; drawing from an instinctive male dominance, even while being tortured and pleasured himself. His eyes had a new fire in them - of conquest, of ambition and discipline and control. Astrid's chest tightened at the sound of it, and her overstimulated body gave her no choice. Her words came out high and pleading.

"Please...Steven. Please...take me. I want you so badly..."

Steven's pupils blew black, and with a sinister, satisfied grin, Loki let him go.

He impaled her.

—-

No longer hindered by Loki's hands or his own misgivings, Steven was a jackhammer, all gentleness and hesitation lost in the swirling frenzy of erotism. He pounded her tight and eager cunt over and over again, hips snapping violently, grunting and groaning with effort and relief that finally - _finally - _he was taking that which he'd wanted from the moment he laid eyes on her.

The curling screams that came from Astrid's throat nearly undid him immediately, but he forced himself to delay his own satisfaction, finding the new sensation of sexual control and dominance too tempting, wanting to extend his experience of it. Astrid's walls were already fluttering with impending orgasm, and Steven was about to take her over the edge when…

"Now stop."

Loki's command had perfect timing, and Steven instantly froze, holding himself firmly within her as she crested. The moans and cries she made were unlike any he'd heard in his life - guttural, animalistic, furious...and repeating his name again and again. The reptilian part of his brain took over, dissolving all other thoughts except to fuck this incredible woman until her throat was raw with his name, until she passed out, until he had claimed her and filled her with all the seed he possessed. And yet, in the back of his mind, knowing his king, his commander, _his Loki_, was behind him, watching him, coaching him - he'd never been more eager to make the God of Mischief proud.

Suddenly, just as Astrid was beginning to come down from her orgasm, she began slowly twisting and grinding her hips under him. She seemed to move instinctively, with no thought behind the action. Her eyes were closed and her lips were parted softly with just the hint of a smile as she gyrated on his still-hard cock, drawing her own pleasure from him in a hazy, lusty dreamstate. He gulped...it was a new sensation, feeling those slick walls squeeze and slide around him on their own while he stayed unmoving in her hot, wet cunt

Steven felt Loki's hand touch his back as he came forward and leaned over his shoulder again. "_Very_ good," he said, watching Astrid with the same hungry glare that Steven now wore. "Now, see what you've done to her?"

Her body positively glowed from the effects of her climax - her dazed smile, her flushed cheeks, her mussed and messy hair, the light sheen of sweat glistening on her skin, the unconscious movements of her body in the aftershocks. Impossibly, she was more gorgeous now than he could have imagined, and Steven's pounding heart felt near to bursting for her.

"I think it's time we removed this dress, don't you?" Loki said almost flippantly, and he placed a finger in the hollow of her throat, drawing it down over the emerald on her necklace, over her solar plexus and directly between her breasts, then down the bodice of her dress. She shuddered as he worked, and where his finger touched, the clothing simply fell apart, exposing her perfect body in a slow, unfolding way; before long, she was completely naked, still full to the hilt with Steven's cock and working her hips to take the pleasure she wanted. She hardly seemed to notice her dress was gone, lost in the wonderful feel of him.

"Mmhm," Loki chuckled, and Steven felt his hand slide down his back. "Now I believe now _you're _a bit overdressed as well..."

Steven shivered at the tingle of magic that flowed down his spine, the uniform splitting and crumpling around him as Loki removed the fabric piece by piece, not once requiring Steven to leave Astrid's firm, slick grip.

The change of pace was mesmerizing, and Steven found himself matching Astrid's lazy movements, reading her body and thrusting gently when he saw she wanted it. He was rewarded with happy humming and a bright-eyed look of satisfaction. Together, they shared in each other's pleasure, the intensity remaining mellow, just enjoying the feeling of being connected and exploring each other's bodies.

—-

Loki watched his queen and his general continue their contented lovemaking with utter fascination. Never, in all his plans and schemes, in all his many years as a prince and an outcast, in any future he imagined in this universe, had he once considered he might fall in love with two people at the same time. And not just people - two _humans_, two mortals, two Midgardians.

He suddenly felt a small pang of shame for how he had judged his brother for so impetuously swooning for a pretty mortal girl, but now...it certainly made more sense. And the irony of it - if Thor hadn't fallen for Jane, Steven would never have come into his life.

The Fates were having a field day with him, it seemed.

And it was an unexpected joy to see Steven experiencing Astrid's body for the first time, watching his unfamiliar reactions mingle with the ones he knew so well from her. Loki would occasionally encourage Steven to touch Astrid in a place he knew she liked, or change his angle to tantalize some hidden spot within her. It thrilled Loki to see her react to Steven's hands and lips and cock with the same quivering enthusiasm she had for him, and together he and Steven even discovered a new spot that drove Astrid crazy, when Steven grabbed her just below the rib cage with both of his hands.

When the time felt right, he magicked away his clothes and put his hands on Steven's hips, laying his bare chest to the soldier's back. Still inside Astrid, Steven let out a sex-drunk giggle.

"Mmm, hey there," he hummed, pushing back into Loki. "I take it you'd like some time with your queen?" He started to pull out, but Loki didn't move.

"Not exactly…"

His meaning hit Steven like a semi-truck. The giddy silliness changed to the tense but excited anticipation of yet another boundary now open to being crossed that day. There was just a moment where Loki thought Steven might not want to do that, might not _ever _want to do that...but his fear turned to subdued hope when Steven said, "I've...never done that before…"

It wasn't a "no."

Loki turned on his most seductive voice and got close to Steven's ear. "It's a day for firsts, it seems. Not mine, of course. But I promise...it will be the best orgasm of your life."

Loki could feel Steven's pulse skyrocket as he leaned on his strong back, his breath starting to shiver. Loki began kissing and nibbling the skin on Steven's neck and heard the man moan softly. Astrid looked transfixed, and she swallowed hard as she moved her hand down between her legs and began stroking her clit while Steven started to get harder inside her.

"If you agree to try it," Loki whispered. "I'll go slowly, and, of course, I'll stop if you ask...but I don't think you will."

Steven looked at Astrid, and she told him with her eyes that she would support whatever choice he made. With another shuddering breath, he spoke.

"OK...ok. Let's try it."

Loki's face lit up for a brief moment before turning ravenous. "Good boy…" he growled, which got a gasping response from both of the mortals. At those words. Steven melted, utterly submissive, that tenuous combination of fear, trust, and want apparent in every restrained whimper, every movement of his body, every whispered curse - it was pure aphrodisia. Loki had not been intimate with another man in far too long, and for his wait to end with _Steven_...he was honestly having trouble controlling his enthusiasm.

"Astrid, my dear, how are you doing? Are you sore? Do you need to rest?" Loki said as he firmly grabbed Steven's hair and roughly pulled his head to the side, exposing more of his neck to the lust-filled god. He licked up the artery that pulsed rapidly under the thin skin - eliciting yet another of those delicious sighs of ecstasy from Steven - before shifting his gaze to her, thrilled by the expression she wore. No one emotion could describe it; she was a rainbow of uncertainty, arousal, excitement, confusion, anticipation, approval, nerves...but ultimately, eagerness.

"No, I'm not sore…" Astrid said softly, as though speaking any louder might break the spell she was under. "I can keep going..."

"_Excellent,_" he mewed.

He continued to hold Steven in the stiff, extended position by his hair as he reached down to where his beloved mortals conjoined, and he lathered his fingers in Astrid's slick. She keened and groaned as he drew the viscous liquid out of her with the help of some seidr, then slid his hand along Steven's testicles and slowly up to the pucker of his ass. Loki gently massaged the area and applied generous lubrication with all the skill of a master craftsman, stroking every secret erogenous zone and reveling in the twitches and moans that Steven made as he worked.

Astrid, too, was enjoying Steven's reactions, as he thrust forward in short, reflexive bursts while Loki's hand toyed with him from behind. Loki grinned almost manically at how tight he was, at how Astrid gasped when Steven moved. and at how aroused it all made him, to the point where he found it difficult to take full breaths.

After several minutes, he began to dip his finger inside Steven's anus, speaking soft praises and encouraging words in his practiced, dark voice: "Relax and exhale...there you go...focus on Astrid, on how her cunt grabs you every time you move…that's it...you're doing so well..."

It was hard to tell if Steven heard him at all, and for a moment, Loki worried he might have pushed him too far again. "Steven, do you want me to stop?" Loki asked, trying his best to cover any disappointment or panic that might be heard in his voice with a playful threat.

"NO!" Steven nearly shouted, pleadingly pushing his hips back, and Loki breathed a silent sigh of relief. "Oh god no, please don't stop…"

With that, Loki slid the entirety of his long, slender finger inside, and Steven made a noise that sounded like a roar and a purr at the same time. He arched his back, thrusting his raging cock deep into Astrid and causing her to make her own beastial noises.

"Ohhhh, god, that's good, Steven…" she moaned and tilted her hips to let him penetrate her even further, sensually rubbing herself with increasing urgency. "That's so good…"

Steven loosened and relaxed around Loki's penetrating digit as Astrid encouraged him, so Loki began pumping his finger in and out gently, being careful to watch his masculine lover for any signs of discomfort, but none ever showed. He added a second finger and felt the taut tissues stretch and grasp him, but still Steven moaned and panted and ground his hips into Astrid. Finally, a third finger joined the other two, and in what felt like no time, Loki was sure Steven was prepared.

Loki removed his hand and aligned himself with Steven's back entrance. The soldier stiffened instinctively.

"You're ready, Steven." Loki said slowly, in a voice as deep and soft as newfallen arctic snow.

Steven fell back into Loki, his head resting on his shoulder, and he moaned in wordless agreement.

Loki slowly began to push himself inside of Steven, the tip of his cock just penetrating the opening, drawing more lubrication to the spot and watching Steven's face with caution, fascination, and carnal delight.

—-

Steven's head swam with the sensations that radiated through his body, still buried in Astrid, and about to be fully taken by his king. He took long, deep breaths, forcing himself to relax as the unfamiliar intrusion shot an intoxicating mix of pain and pleasure up from the base of his spine; with every exhale, the pressure eased just enough for Loki to push another inch deeper, then he would wait for Steven's body to adjust before pressing further. It was difficult to balance on that edge of calmness, where the panic that wanted to explode from the fear and novelty of what was happening stayed successfully quelled by his desire to be filled by Loki and the anticipation of a sexual experience beyond his imagination.

And he _loved_ it.

Prior to this moment, his entire sexual history consisted of the hesitating and awkward intercourse he'd endured with his high school girlfriend, then nothing but one night stands with women from bars during his time in the U.S. military. But he'd always _wanted_ more, always felt that prickle of curiosity when he got a glimpse of the darker, more risqué domains that skirted the edges of polite society. The gay bars he walked past...slowly. The videos of women in leather straps that he watched secretly in the barracks. It was all he could do to stay on the straight-and-narrow, but that nagging feeling to explore those forbidden worlds had always been there...

Those were the last coherent thoughts he could manage before he felt the final inch of his king slip inside him, and Loki settled flush against his back with a satisfied hum.

Steven let out a noise he hadn't known he could make - it rumbled from deep in his belly, low and loud and guttural. He was incapacitated, effectively trapped inside Astrid on one side and full to bursting with Loki on the other. His heart raced, his eyes dilated, he shook with the adrenaline that coursed through every nanometer of his body while Loki held him patiently and let him adjust to his size, still whispering praises and promises...

And then they started moving.

A tsunami of pleasure and pain tore through him, cracking his brain like pealing thunder in a lightning storm and rendering him helpless. Loki was a man possessed, gradually gaining speed and grinning wildly as he seized Steven's hips so hard that he felt the capillaries rupturing under his skin. Astrid's wide eyes stared up at her two lovers, fists clenched around Steven's thighs as she kept him steady, jolting from the double-hits of Steven and Loki's thrusts and making airy moans of passion...until all three of them felt the undeniable building of their impending climaxes. They groaned, they humped, they ground and pushed and writhed and sweated and grabbed and swore until…

White flashed behind Steven's eyes. Everything disappeared - _he_ disappeared - in a swirling frenzy of orgasm that ripped from everywhere at once. He shook uncontrollably as every hormone and endorphin dumped into his bloodstream. and his entire nervous system lit up. Stars floated in his vision, and Loki and Astrid's own cries of passion seemed far away as he recognized their bodies tensing and spasming, their own peaks crashing over them. He felt Loki explode inside his already-full orifice, filling him even further and pushing him into an encore orgasm. He unloaded into Astrid and enjoyed the milking feeling of her pulsing cunt around him, watching her beautiful undoing through near-closed eyes. Together, they rode out their cresting pleasure, all heaving breaths and loose limbs, until the sun dipped below the horizon and the world went dark.

—-

After the threesome, after they detached from each other and made their way back to the royal chambers, after they'd bathed together, after they dried and talked and laughed and eaten dinner and finished their evening by crawling into the huge bed and wrapping themselves into a cuddle, Astrid laid between the two men - her king and her soldier - thinking of Karine.

Back in their apartment, before they'd left for New York...that morning after Stuttgart when Astrid had teasingly demanded the details of Karine's night with Nicolaus and Benedikt, back when she had no idea what madness was to come in the following weeks...had it been _that _recent since she'd found those exploits so explicitly taboo, so outside of her sphere of consideration? How wildly her life had changed...it was starting to catch up with her.

She missed the normalcy, missed the predictability and simplicity of their lives before she'd literally become Queen of Earth...Midgard...whatever it was she had become. She desperately wanted to talk to Karine, to make sure she was OK, to try and reconcile what had happened...and it was so unfair and strange that she couldn't. Astrid felt the familiar tears beginning to brim, and confident that her bedmates were already asleep by their easy breathing, she let them silently flow down her cheeks, privately mourning the life she'd left behind...and finally beginning to accept that it was gone for good.

—-

Back in her computer lab, Karine watched the video of Loki, Steven, and Astrid in the lounge yet again. She'd been playing it over and over, for hours...who _was_ that woman?

Not Astrid.

Not _her_ Astrid.

_Not_ _her Astrid._

The phrase kept repeating in her head, but no matter how many times she thought it, the truth of it just wouldn't settle in. She wanted to let go, wanted to write her off and start over in this new life as Val, just forget she ever _had_ a life before this one...and it just wasn't happening.

But she also knew a video like this couldn't be allowed to exist - there was too much risk, too many ways it could be used against the monarchy. So when it ended that final time, with the three of them exiting to their chambers, she corrupted the data file and erased it permanently.

To protect Astrid.

_Her _Astrid.


	9. Chapter 9 - Nanobots

**Hope you liked the last chapter - that was a doozy, wasn't it? :) Anyway, onto some more feels.**

**\- Rose**

_Six months later_

Karine jolted awake, her hair tangled wildly around her face, terror and amazement filling her eyes. Her heart pounded as she sat shaking on the bed, breathing fast.

Charged with adrenaline, she replayed the night with Loki while it was still fresh in her memory, the way he teased her and tortured her in every way she craved. Cold sweat beaded off her forehead as flashes of that night's scene scrolled through her mind - a steampunk fantasy, strapped to a rumbling machine, every part of her body vibrating…Loki in a long brown leather duster and a top hat with brass-rimmed goggles resting on the brim, smiling viciously as he twisted knobs and pushed buttons. It was a doozy of a dream.

Karine swallowed hard, and consciously slowed her breath. She began to relax as her focus returned to reality, and she turned to look at her nightstand...nothing there. She swung her legs over the bed and pulled the blankets off, then walked to the mirror, reaching up and touching her wrinkled, tired face - not _her_ face, the face that Loki made her wear. She still hadn't gotten used to it; was she really that dark skinned? Did her eyes always look so hollow?

Karine turned on the water and splashed some into her face. Even the chill didn't shake her out of her stupor. She felt the grainy dryness in her eyes, and she rubbed her palms over them, trying to infuse them with some of the water on her face. For some time now, she'd been suspecting that her ability to maintain this schedule would begin to falter - between her daily work controlling all of mankind's technology and the cruel and fantastic nocturnal visits, she never really rested. The exhaustion she had been suffering began to weigh on her more and more. It was becoming difficult to keep her thoughts together; it surprised her that she had survived this long without a breakdown, but now she felt like it was just a matter of time. She needed to do something to keep herself focused, Coffee wasn't cutting it anymore.

She had been thinking about solutions to that problem for a while, and she knew what she needed to do. The issue was getting her hands on the nanobots...she didn't have security access to the lab three stories above her, where the work on _her_ nanobots was conducted. Her's and Astrid's. But now just Astrid's. And Bruce Banner's...

Not that she could blame him. Given the choice - risk letting the monster take him over every day of his life, or cooperate and receive treatments - she would have done the same. But it infuriated her that she wasn't allowed to work with technology that _she_ developed, that _she _understood better than anyone, even better than Astrid. Loki's doing - why would Valkyrie know anything about the technology that she'd never seen before, that Astrid and Karine had built? It was part of the bargain to keep her hidden in plain sight; the nanobots were kept out of her reach.

But the exhaustion was too much. She _knew_ the bots could help her, if she could just get her hands on some. Even better if she had time to reprogram them...even _she _had been impressed by her work in six hours, but with days? Weeks? Months? She had so many other ideas and refinements she could make.

With one last sigh at the hopelessness of her plight, she got dressed, grabbed her ID card, and headed to the lab.

"Morning, Jarvis," Karine chimed with false enthusiasm as she sat down at the console. "Anything exciting happen while I was gone?"

"Everything is as expected. No surprises, no threats. Another day in paradise."

He was being sarcastic, something he had picked up since working so closely with Karine. Truthfully, Jarvis was the only friend Karine had in the Palace. She told him everything, and he seemed to understand. They were both trapped under the rule of King Loki, waiting for the moment when they might find some way out.

Karine chuckled darkly. "Ah, Jarvis, you know how to start a girl's day."

"Yes, I do," Jarvis said, and an articulated arm bent down with a steaming styrofoam cup. "Exactly 165 degrees fahrenheit, dark roasted Arabica beans, filtered water. 10 ounces fresh brewed coffee, 2 ounces steamed whole milk."

Karine laughed and took the cup, the heat radiating through her hands. "And one teaspoon of Turbinado sugar." Jarvis finished as she took her first sip. Karine made a satisfied "Mmmmm" and closed her eyes. "Jarvis, you take such good care of me."

"I do what I can. Now, shall we review the market trackers? Or would you prefer to research these people Steven wants to know more about?"

"Oooo, that sounds fun. Who are we after this time?"

"His name is The Mandarin. Potential threat, significant following called the Ten Rings. Very secretive, they've been having trouble finding anything on him."

"Faaantastic. Let's dig this guy out."

Sometimes, her life in this world wasn't so bad - having the ability to know _anything_ was amazing, and with Jarvis' processing power and her code, they could mine huge data to find patterns and trends that no one else could see.

For the next few hours, Karine and Jarvis scraped together the information they thought Steven would like to know, eventually finding their target in a compound in Uzbekistan. A man that the world wasn't even sure existed, and now they had satellite images of him sunbathing on the roof of a run-down dirt hut. All in a day's work.

"OK, I think that's enough to send in the troops. Can you get these files up to General Foster and his team?" Karine started packing up her folders, sliding them into the secure cabinet. "I'm gonna go to the cafeteria for lunch - it's Mac and Cheese day. Can I get you anything?"

"Very funny, Karine," Jarvis fairly grumbled. "It was funny the first fourteen times as well."

Karine laughed. "Never gets old."

She slipped out the door into the hallway, heading for the lunchroom.

The low roar of conversation echoed off the walls of the large open room as she entered. She kept her head down - she didn't normally come to eat here, but she was _craving_ that Mac and Cheese today; the recipe they served here was surprisingly good, supposedly from the recipe book of Tony Stark's personal chef, who had modified it from the original Maria Stark recipe. Karine wondered if Tony ever thought this recipe would be a favorite of the regime that murdered him and took over everything he and his father spent almost a century building...

Best not to think about it. She slid into line and grabbed the plastic tray.

Just as she was getting to the serving area, the man in front of her dropped his plate of food as he was pulling it back. The bowl clattered to the floor, sending noodles and gooey orange sauce spraying out in all directions. A few people in the room clapped sarcastically, and the man turned around with a sheepish grin, raising his hand in acknowledgement. It was Bruce Banner. It was Bruce FUCKING Banner...exactly the person she needed. Karine's heart skipped a beat, and she bent down and to help put the mess back on the tray.

"Thanks," Bruce said softly. "I seem to be getting clumsier."

"Don't we all?" Karine smiled. It felt forced. She hadn't smiled at a _person_ in a very long time. "It's ok. Plenty more where that came from."

They both stood, and Bruce handed the messy tray to the server behind the sneeze guard, grabbing a new tray and plate of food.

"Mac and Cheese day," Bruce chuckled as he took the food. "One of the few times I'll come out of the lab. I don't know where they got this recipe, but it's pretty great."

"Huh. Me too." Karine lied, grabbing a plate for herself. There weren't many things she _didn't _know these days.

"What department do you work in?" Bruce asked. Superficial co-worker conversation. It seemed so easy. Karine knew better - one slip of the tongue and she knew what would happen.

"Technology infrastructure." She said off-handedly. "You?"

"Nanorobotics. Still making those capsules for the soldiers...and myself."

Karine feigned surprise. "For yourself?"

"Yea… I guess I should introduce myself, before someone else does it for me. I'm Bruce. Banner."

Bruce's "condition" was a well-known secret in the Palace of Midgard. Karine gave him a look of sudden realization, though she of course already knew. The lying had become so natural that she almost forgot she was doing it.

"Ah, Mr. Banner. Nice to put a face to the name. I'm Val."

"Well, Val from Technology Infrastructure, want to eat with me?"

"Sure," she smiled that awkward smile again and followed him to an empty table in the dining area. This was the longest conversation she'd had with anyone other than Loki or Jarvis since the Battle of New York, and she knew her social skills were rusty. Had she really been so full of life before? Had interactions been as easy as she remembered, before Stuttgart? Before all of this?

"So what do you do for Tech? I heard the gal who runs it is pretty insane."

Karine smiled half-heartedly, eyes focused on her food. "You could say that," she mused, and took a bite. Warm, gooey, delicious. Her exhausted mind lost her train of thought for a moment.

The silence hung in air as Bruce waited for an answer to a question that Karine had forgotten he'd asked. "So...what do you do for Valkyrie?"

Karine swallowed hard and realized what happened. "Oh! Sorry...I...it's been a long...it's just been busy." She stumbled through her words. "I...um...well...I don't do anything _for_ Valkyrie…" She looked up, wondering if he connected the dots.

He didn't. He just looked confused. She sighed, then said very softly, so no one around them would hear. "I _am _Valkyrie."

Bruce's eyes went wide. "You're Valkyrie?! Like, _the_ Valkyrie?"

"Shh," Karine hushed him. "I don't want everyone here to know! This is why I don't come out often…"

"Wow..." Bruce sat back, somewhat dumbfounded. "It's nice to meet you. Thanks for saving all our lives. I mean...I'm sure you get that a lot."

"I try not to," said Karine, shrinking.

"But you're a hero!" Bruce leaned in, knowing his excitement might be recognized even as he whispered. "Don't you want to, you know, enjoy the benefits?"

Karine could feel the conversation slowly changing. She didn't want this...she didn't want to remember who she used to be, what she did. Now she was just doing her job. Heroes didn't do that.

"No," she said curtly. "I just...I don't know what I want. For the most part, I just want to be left alone."

Bruce nodded slowly. "I get that. It's hard being the center of attention, especially when you don't _want _the attention. It's ok. Your secret's safe with me. We all have our secrets..."

He shifted nervously in his seat, then pulled a plastic tube from his pocket. He popped it open and shook a small, grey capsule into his hand. He quickly tossed it in his mouth and swallowed it with a gulp of water, then he looked back at Karine, who had suddenly gone rigid at the sight of the nanobots...

"And we deal with it however we can…" Bruce sighed. "Maybe we should change the subject."

Karine nodded. It wasn't like she could just tackle him and take them, not in the middle of the cafeteria. And she couldn't talk to him about what she was going through, anyway. Yet again, what she wanted was _literally_ within reach, and also completely inaccessible to her.

"It's weird living here, isn't it?" Karine mused dejectedly, forcing herself to focus on something else and poking some noodles onto her fork, then half-heartedly shoving them into her mouth. For all the crap she was going through...at least the food was good.

"It's about the same as every other government building I've slept in," Bruce grinned, trying to be funny, but when Karine continued to stare blankly at the table in front of him, his smile faded and he awkwardly took a bite of his lunch.

"Sorry," she said again, realizing what he had been trying to do. "I'm not...I haven't been sleeping," Karine said it almost mechanically. She could barely move her eyes...just focusing them was an effort. "I have these dreams…"

Suddenly, her vision flashed red. She gasped and grabbed her forehead, eyes squeezed shut. It only lasted for a moment, but the brutal reminder was enough to wake her up and watch what she said. _Don't say dreams…_ Karine reminded herself.

Bruce was obviously concerned. "Val, are you ok?!" he asked nervously.

"I...can't get my mind to turn off. Thoughts just keep running through my head. I don't really know if I'm awake or asleep, but I'm not resting. And I don't know how to make it stop."

She felt her breath shudder, and she hadn't realized how close she had come to crying.

"Oh, Val…" Bruce said sympathetically, and he rubbed his hand on her back. It felt amazing to be touched - to have some kind of physical contact after everything that had happened. Karine leaned into him almost instinctively, craving the comfort. He squeezed her close to him.

"There's so much pressure," she said, feeling tears begin to well in her eyes and threatening to overflow down her cheeks.

"Hey, hey…" Bruce lifted her into a straight sitting position and looked her in the eye. "Let's get out of here. My office is just down the hall. Come on."

She couldn't help herself. She stood, and Bruce put his arm around her shoulders, holding her up against him and guiding her out of the cafeteria. The contact, the connection, was all platonic - just a compassionate person giving comfort to someone in need. But it broke Karine. She hadn't had an outlet for everything she had seen and done, someone to talk to. Without Astrid, it ate her up. And Bruce was a welcome substitute.

Bruce walked with her down the hall and into his sparse office, closing the door behind him as they entered. There was a large, disorganized desk with countless papers spread haphazardly across the entire surface, an impressive looking computer, and a small bookshelf overflowing with different scientific papers and journals. There was also a small couch to the side of the room, and Bruce guided her toward it, helping her sit.

"Can I get you some water?" he asked, his tone a mix of genuine concern and social awkwardness.

"Yes, please," Karine answered. Her voice cracked as she spoke, eyes watery.

Bruce returned to the couch with two paper cups and a few napkins, and sat down next to her. He handed her the cup, and took a few sips before thanking him, still in somewhat of a daze.

"So...you're having trouble sleeping. I mean, it's understandable - the world literally changed overnight, there's a lot of stress involved in that. And you...you stopped a nuclear attack. I can't imagine what that would do to a person. I can see why you don't come out much."

It was a stumbling invitation to let Karine talk about her problems, but she appreciated it nonetheless.

"It's just...I didn't even want to be here. I had no idea what I was agreeing to when I got into this..._invasion_... and then all of the sudden, I couldn't leave. I'm stuck here. Everything in my life is gone - my friends, my family, my job - and I can't do anything about it because if I do…" Again her throat tightened as she felt the raging Red begin to bubble up behind her eyes, but it was halted by the thought of Astrid being ripped to shreds by an angry mob forcing itself into her mind, replaying over and over. Karine closed her eyes tightly and the salty tears finally streamed down her cheeks. Bruce put his hand on her knee.

"I...have...a condition…" she wept. "My thoughts won't stop. I can't sleep, I can't rest. And I can't keep this up. I don't know what I'm going to do…"

Without a word, Bruce leaned over and pulled her in for a hug. Karine fell into him, sobbing. She let everything go, held nothing back. The small amount of willpower she had to keep herself together completely disappeared, and she cried harder than she had ever cried before. Her tears soaked Bruce's shirt, but he just held her, rubbed her back, and let her break down.

After several minutes, Karines sobs softened to whimpers, and she rested her wet cheek on Bruce's shoulder, exhausted and relieved. Her eyes stayed closed, and her breathing evened. For the first time in a week, she drifted off to a peaceful, dreamless sleep.

Several hours later, Karine's eyes fluttered open at the sound of shuffling papers. She looked around, confused at first, but soon she remembered where she was. Bruce sat behind his desk, leaning over a pile of documents and scribbling notes. Karine sighed softly and sat up on the couch, drawing Bruce's attention. He smiled as he saw her wake up, standing and walking to her. "Feeling better?" he asked.

She swung her legs down and shifted into a sitting position, allowing Bruce to sit next to her. "Much better, thanks," she said, still groggy. "I haven't slept that well in..."

She honestly couldn't remember. Weeks? Months?

"Yea, I know," Bruce chuckled sadly, and his gaze shifted to the floor. "I, uh, I was working on something while you were asleep. Come take a look."

Bruce stood and walked to his desk, and Karine followed. On the desk...was her code. Printed onto the dozens of pages, spread around in a mess of numbers and handwritten edits. Her eyes darted back and forth over her work. "What is this?" she asked, hoping she sounded surprised enough.

"It's the original program for the nanobots from the Battle of New York. A small section, anyway. I've been working with these things for almost half a year, and I can't believe how detailed and complex this code is. It's like...art." He leaned down and pointed to a section. "See this here? Astrid told me this section tells the nanobots how to communicate with the neurons using molecular programming. This is WAY beyond where technology is right now - this is revolutionary. Machines directly communicating with the human body. With the mind. These machines are the next technological miracle, Val."

Hearing him call her "Val" snapped her back into reality. She had been reading the code, remembering when she wrote it. How happy it had made her when it finally worked the way she wanted it to….

But it wasn't hers anymore.

"Why is it printed?" she asked quickly.

Bruce chuckled nervously. "Call me old school. When I'm analyzing code, I just prefer it to be on paper. Easier for me to read. If I'm looking at a screen, I can miss or forget something. But that doesn't happen if I have a pencil," he said, waving a standard yellow Number Two Ticonderoga in his right hand.

"Huh…" Karine gave a half-smile. It was quaint.

"So, I was looking over this code, and I realized that I might be able to program the bots to increase the effectiveness of sleep. So, if you can only get a few hours, you could still feel completely rested."

_That's already in there..._Karine thought to herself, but she kept trying to look as interested as possible. "Really, they can do that?"

"They can do way more than that...in fact that might have already been in the original program, but the molecular code degrades over time because it's a bioelectric mechanism. The program that enhanced the soldiers during the battle is already falling apart. We're trying to reverse engineer here - Astrid has been doing her best to explain how they work, but she said her specialty was the body, not the bots. And she's too busy being Queen to be in the lab all the time so...I'm trying to figure it out myself."

Karine's blood boiled. They were HER tech, stolen from her, and now a gamma radiation specialist was trying to reverse engineer HER code to understand how to program HER nanobots. She almost let her anger slip, but her attention was drawn back to Bruce as he pulled a tube from his jacket pocket and set it on the desk in front of her.

"While you were asleep, I went to the lab and programmed them for you. Now, even if you can't sleep, at least you won't be exhausted."

Karine stopped, staring at the tube, then looked up to Bruce. She was momentarily speechless, but she realized she needed to say something when he started to look especially uncomfortable.

"Th-Thank you!" she stammered. "That's...the nicest thing anyone has done for me in a long time."

"Hey, glad I can help," Bruce smiled, and put his hand gently on her shoulder. "Val, if you need anything, my door is always open. We all go through things, but you don't have to deal with your 'condition' alone. Maybe we should get Mac and Cheese more often."

"I'd like that," Karine smiled, then looked at her watch. "Geez...I need to go. People are going to start wondering where I am." She leaned over and hugged him. "Thank you, Bruce. I had almost forgotten what it was like to have a friend."

Bruce just grinned sheepishly, and with that, she left his office and headed back to Jarvis, squeezing the tube of capsules firmly in her pocket.


	10. Chapter 10 - Scars

**Woohoo new update! Hope you enjoy...this one gets dark. ?**

**\- Rose**

Malick was finally conscious again.

Loki had taken every precaution to keep him alive, even without a guarantee that he would survive the ordeal. He'd been in a coma since his time in the closet, healing from his physical injuries. But he _had_ survived, and Loki practically skipped down the hall to the infirmary where he'd been recovering, Astrid hurrying behind him.

"Loki - slow down!" Astrid called after him, breathing hard from the pace she had to maintain in order to keep up with his long strides. He had pulled her away from the multitude of holiday events that she was coordinating, all being hosted at the Palace, and she barely had time for this quick visit with her husband. But he had insisted, and he was the King, after all.

"Why are you so excited about this?" she asked breathlessly.

"Oh, _so_ many reasons, darling!" Loki smiled and turned around to face her, walking backward for a moment and taking one of her hands in his; the omnipresent scepter was grasped firmly in his other. "I have been waiting _months_ for this moment. And I want you to see it all come together."

Astrid swore she heard him _giggle_ before he spun back around to cover the remaining distance to Malick's room. It was honestly a bit disturbing...she'd never seen him this giddy about _anything_ before, much less visiting the man he had nearly tortured to death.

One small relief was knowing Steven wasn't around to see whatever it was Loki wanted to show her. Loki's eagerness to share his "good work" had already traumatized Steven once, and part of her role in their triad was acting as a filter between her over-enthusiastic husband and their well-meaning, good-natured...well, they didn't really have a title for what he was to them. He just _was_.

That day in the lounge...it was as life-changing as the first time Loki used the scepter on her. A strange, new reality blossomed in front of her - a life and a world that seemed impossible before that moment suddenly became _HERS_, with all the amazing benefits...and the consequences.

From that moment on, they were equal; Steven wasn't an "addition" to Loki and Astrid - he was a necessary piece they never realized was missing. The three of them were drawn to each other in seeking comfort from the pain, fear, and guilt that had developed when Loki showed Steven what he'd done to Malick.

Steven's place in their relationship had been unique and exciting in ways Astrid was still learning to understand. Having two lovers took quite a bit more energy - especially since one of those lovers was _Loki _\- but on the other hand, her heart was filled in ways she'd never thought possible.

Being with Steven was like coming home: comforting and stable. Having a confidant when she was in her most confused and desperate moments, another person who had been caught up in the madness with her, knew all of her secrets and could empathize, and who she could give comfort and empathy to in return...it was saving her sanity.

And on the other end of the spectrum was Loki. Being with him was like riding a tornado - everything moved so much faster and was so much more intense, but it was _exhilarating _and incredible. A huge part of her own personality she hadn't known existed before he arrived was finally able to develop - confident, ruthless, and effective. They had literally _changed the world_ together. And she _couldn't _go back to living without that part of herself; she'd sacrificed too much to give that up.

Astrid sighed as she scurried behind Loki and thought back on the last six months. She had focused on establishing as many Recovery Cities around the globe as possible, starting in the most desperately impoverished neighborhoods and providing food, water, clothing, and medicine to as many people as she could. Steven helped organize the soldiers and volunteers in building housing, hospitals, and schools, using the nanobots to aid in the heavy lifting when construction vehicles weren't available. The local population was involved in all decision making and given training to care for and maintain these new resources - all of which was paid for by siphoning the riches from the world's wealthiest plutocrats. It turned out, dumping money into these areas actually _was _the best way to improve the lives of those people who needed it most.

There had certainly been resistance, but the laws drafted by Astrid and Loki ensured that any and all material wealth above a certain individual level belonged to the Kingdom...all assets - money, property, investments, _everything_ outside of the legal limits were stripped away from their previous owners. And if they fought it, their punishment was to live in those desperately impoverished neighborhoods they had caused to be so very poor by hoarding their resources.

There was a poetic justice to it that Astrid appreciated.

That's how, in just six short months, billions of people were provided with the necessities they needed to survive. But there was still a _long _way to go.

On top of the Recovery Cities, Astrid's massive Global Science Research and Development Initiative was launched three months earlier. She had brought all the top scientists from around the world to continue their work - fully funded - in the ten stories of state-of-the-art laboratories left to them by the dearly departed Anthony Stark.

(Astrid had even commissioned a plaque honoring the late Iron Man and praising his contributions to the scientific world...without once mentioning how he had met his untimely demise.)

Those top scientists, of course, included Jane, who had established herself as the leading astrophysicist on wormhole technology following Erik Selvig's unfortunate decline in health. When they told Jane about their unique relationship, she initially had her doubts; but as Steven spent more time talking to her about it, and as she saw how the three of them interacted, she slowly came to accept the unusual arrangement, mostly because she saw what good it was doing for her brother.

They decided it was best for Steven and Jane to spend the holidays with their family while Astrid and Loki stayed at the Palace - telling Jane about their "throuple" was one thing, but neither Steven nor Astrid thought their parents would take that news very well. Astrid's parents hadn't exactly been thrilled about her relationship with Loki to begin with. Now with Steven in the mix as well...that might make them want to cut off contact with her entirely. She had so _few_ connections to her life before Loki remaining...

AND the holiday decorating needed to be handled. Astrid groaned silently to herself, thinking of all the work she still needed to do as they reached the room where Malick was held.

"Loki, why do you need me here for this? I have three million other things to oversee right now and-"

"Shhhh." He cut her off, his eyes glued to the closed door. She stopped speaking, lips pressed together and eyebrows peaked in mild frustration at being interrupted, but also curiosity...he was acting SO strangely.

"I did not know if Malick would ever awaken again." Loki's voice was husky, almost predatory...yet still charged with elated delight. "But now that he has...he must be handled delicately...consider this a learning opportunity, my dear, should you ever find yourself in a situation such as this going forward."

Astrid held her breath, keeping herself from asking the flurry of questions that came to mind - if she ever _almost_ tortured someone to death? If she ever kept an enemy alive just to, what, chat with them afterward about it? That look on his face stopped her, though - for, as close as they had become, there were still sides of him she knew he kept hidden from her.

Before going inside, Loki took a deep breath. The glee vanished, and before her eyes he transformed - cold, sinister, malicious; the deadly smirk that only the God of Mischief and Lies could make. The monster.

"Watch," he said softly, in a smooth, venomous whisper. Then he pushed the door open.

As soon as Malick laid eyes on him, he began screaming. And screaming. And screaming.

He pulled frantically against the restraints and thrashed on the hospital bed, nurses and doctors trying to calm him. The tubes connected to his body whipped and writhed around him like snakes, and the alarms blared in tune with his terrified cries. Astrid almost cringed, but she quickly swallowed the uncomfortable feeling and maintained her countenance - in the months since she'd become queen, she'd gotten _very_ good at controlling her reactions.

Loki let him panic, seeming to revel in the horrific noises and awful terror he struck in the man, until finally, he'd had his fill. "SILENCE!" Loki barked, and Malick's mouth instantly shut. The doctors stood stunned for several seconds before they attended to the machines' alarms.

Loki began to walk forward, and Malick stared at him with absolute dread, shaking uncontrollably while tears streamed down...what was left of his face.

He was scarred almost beyond recognition, gruesomely disfigured by what appeared to be self-inflicted wounds. Both his ears had been ripped off, his cheeks bore the remnants of grisly lacerations caused by his own fingers tearing apart his flesh, and his nose had been broken multiple times. He pressed his lips, gashed and healed over, together with every ounce of strength that he could to keep himself from screaming.

"Enjoy your nap, Gid?" Loki stood next to him, reached out, and touched him almost tenderly on the cheek. Malick jumped and began shaking even more, eyes staring straight up at him, so much pain, fear, and hopelessness in them that Astrid found it hard to breathe...and impossible to look away.

Loki held his face like that, inspecting every horrible scar and maimed appendage with a disturbingly stern but careful gaze, appraising the injuries like a work of art.

"You've been very bad, Gideon. Refusing to swear loyalty to me in front of the entire world?" Loki made a soft _tsk tsk _sound, and Malick whimpered at the quiet noise. With another self-satisfied grin, he leaned down and spoke softly into his ear. "Do you regret your actions?" Loki asked coldly.

Malick nodded with short, jerky movements.

"I want you to apologize, Gideon." Loki said, his voice deep and threatening, but Astrid heard the enjoyment in it. Loki was _enjoying_ this...her stomach clenched and her hands began to shake, but her face remained stone set.

For a moment, Malick hesitated, seemingly unable to open his mouth. His throat jumped and contracted helplessly as he tried to speak, but nothing came out.

Loki raised the scepter to Malick's side and pushed the tip in, not far enough to draw blood, but certainly enough to have the desired effect.

"I'M SORRY!" Malick screamed. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he sobbed.

Astrid felt tears beginning to form in her eyes - Malick was _so broken, _physically and mentally. His dignity was completely gone, shivering with fear at the hands of his tormentor. Astrid doubted he would ever fully recover from this trauma...did he truly deserve this, even after what he did? If she weren't in the room, watching him fall apart, maybe she would have said yes. But to endure this heart-wrenching scene...it took every bit of resolve she had to keep watching, and it was starting to falter…

Loki locked his gaze on her. The slightest change in his face, an almost imperceptible shake of his head, and a miniscule widening of his grin was the only thing she needed. Instantly, she controlled herself, still frozen to the floor, but her face maintained its placid expression.

"My dear," Loki said to her, his voice both calm and chilling. "Do you accept his apology? It was quite an affront to you as well..."

She hesitated, struggling to find the strength to keep herself poised. But with Loki watching her...she had to. Astrid took a breath and felt a familiar fire begin to glow from deep within her...from the dark place. It buzzed through her, calming her nerves, quelling her anxiety, shifting into a brazen confidence that she hadn't felt since she'd last held the scepter…

"Yes," she said, her voice as strong and steady as the king's had been earlier, and her expression changed. Harsh, cruel...cold.

Loki's eyes widened and his smile grew; he nodded approvingly, and Astrid's heart began to thunder even harder in her chest. He was...proud of her. And it made her feel powerful.

Loki turned again to Malick.

"Then so be it. I think you've been punished enough, Gideon."

Suddenly, Malick's body shimmered in gold. It took only a few seconds, but when the light subsided...he looked completely unharmed. All the scarring disappeared, all the missing and broken pieces were returned to normal. Malick reached up and felt his face, tears of relief now mixed with fear from before.

Loki leaned down very close to Malick, capturing his chin with his hand, holding his gaze relentlessly. "That is just an illusion, Gideon. I control it, and I can remove it whenever I choose. But as long as you remain _well-behaved_, I should not find that necessary. Is that clear?"

Malick nodded vehemently..

"Very good. Now listen carefully. Tomorrow, you will address the assembly and apologize publicly for your transgression. And you will be sure to mention that the _only_ reason you are still alive is because of my infinite mercy and the forgiveness of your queen. You will then continue in your role on the Global Security Council and live out the rest of your days quietly...and _out _of my way." Loki leaned in even closer. "Test me again, Malick, and I promise you won't enjoy what happens when you cross your king _twice_. Do you understand?"

"Y-y-yes," Malick stuttered.

With that, Loki stormed out of the room. Astrid took one last look at the broken man before following him.

"What the _fuck_ was that?" Astrid whispered, again trying to keep pace with him as he took long strides down the hall, still reeling from what she had seen...and at the position he'd put her in. She'd _never_ felt that dark fire without the scepter, but somehow it had ignited in that room. Truth be told, it frightened her...if she couldn't stop it by avoiding the scepter, there might come a time when she couldn't stop it _at all_.

Loki just grinned at her petulant question, his demeanor having changed again from malicious to enthusiastic, though not completely back to the cheerful state he was in before.

"Because he's so much more _useful _now. My own little puppet world leader, desperate to keep me happy. What's the problem with that?"

"No...I mean why did you make me watch that? What the _hell_ did you do to him in there?"

"What did I- Astrid, I've been planning this since I put him in the closet!" Loki seemed surprised by her reaction, and was verging on anger. "He'll serve as an example to others, and he's at my beck-and-call should I need anything from him. And he _used_ to be one of the most powerful people on the planet, both in the 'legitimate' government AND with that shadow organization HYDRA that was actually running everything. Showing the world he is at my mercy establishes credibility for my— for _our_ monarchy! We are the merciful heroes who have brought regime under our thumb."

He stopped and turned to her, confused and suspicious. "I am showing you how power is handled at this level of global politics, Astrid. You've been doing _so_ well...but there is more to it than what you've seen so far. Malick is the figurehead of our enemies, and he needed to be made an example of. Can you not see that?"

A dark thought came to her mind, one that chilled her to even think it...but she knew it was true, and she had to say it, had to understand his thinking. Because, for the first time since they'd connected with the scepter...she doubted him.

"What if he betrays you? What if he secretly builds a rebellion, or gives information to people who might want to kill you? Or me?"

Loki exhaled sharply, now obviously frustrated. "He won't, Astrid."

"But how do you know?"

"Because...I _know,"_ Loki snapped. He looked irritated, but Astrid couldn't leave it at that. He'd told her it was a learning opportunity, and dammit she was going to learn something.

"HOW do you know, Loki? Is this something that you did on Asgard, or with your patron? Has this ever been tried with _humans_ before? How many times have you—"

"ASTRID!" he hollered at her, and what she thought was irritation quickly turned to fury. She stopped, watching him, wary. His rapid change of temperament was something she had gotten used to, but it was never something she took lightly. She composed herself, feeling that same darkness she felt in Malick's room bubble to the surface yet again. Her eyes narrowed.

"Loki. WHY?"

His eyes went wide, obviously not expecting to be challenged regarding his motivations. But as she continued to wait for his answer...he started to falter…

"B-because…" he stuttered and ran a hand through his hair, fidgeting with the scepter, eyes shifting rapidly as though he were trying to find the words. It was incredibly odd...Loki was _never_ at a loss for words. When he finally looked at her again, the anger was muted, tinged with...was it...nervousness? Fear? Astrid couldn't tell, but this change in mood was almost a relief - for the first time since she had known him, _he_ was caving.

"Loki, what aren't you telling me…?"

"It's...AGH!" he cried out like a trapped animal, stopping and holding his head in the middle of the hallway, the scepter clattering to the ground. Astrid stood frozen to her spot, eyes locked on Loki - she had never seen him behave like this before. And he had been more unpredictable with his moods lately. Perhaps it was just the stress of leadership, or perhaps there was something more going on that he was hiding from her...

After several tense seconds, Loki's shuddering breathing leveled out. He swallowed hard, and turned to walk down the hall in the direction they had been heading. "Come with me…" he said without looking back, his voice nearly a whisper.

He began to walk rapidly toward their chambers. Astrid grabbed the scepter, and again, struggled to keep up with him, more confused - and more scared - than ever. He disappeared into their room.

"Loki - wait!" she panted, finally getting through their door. She closed and locked it behind her, then turned and saw him standing silhouetted in front of the window, stiffly, his back to her, his shoulders tensely rising and falling with his breath. His shirt was missing.

"Loki...what's wrong?" she asked, almost more afraid of what his answer would be than if he'd remained silent.

Then he turned...and his eyes were red - not bloodshot, not like he had been crying, but completely RED. The _entirety _of his eyes shone deep crimson in the low light. His body, his skin...was _blue, _like glacial ice...

And he was horribly, gruesomely scarred.

All over his torso, he was covered with scar tissue. Gashes, gorges, bite marks, burns...every type of injury imaginable was painted across his skin like an artistic display of the different varieties of pain.

Loki's face was worse than Malick's. One of his eyes was completely missing, replaced by a wound that looked healed over several times. His hair, she saw now, was thinned and patchy, seeming to have been burned off in places. He was missing teeth, and several of them were chipped and cracked, including one long fang she could see through his snarl; his cheeks were marred with gashes and some sort of raised markings that looked almost natural to him.

Astrid's eyes went wide, and she fell completely silent. She dropped the scepter, her hands rising slowly to cover her mouth. She instinctively took a step back as she tried to comprehend what she saw. It was Loki...it _was_ Loki, wasn't it? But...some hideous, monstrous version of him.

"Loki…" the words trickled out of her mouth and evaporated into the air. "What...what are…"

"This is how I know…" he said gravely, his voice deeper and more raspy than usual, but most certainly still _him. _He turned to face her fully, still silhouetted in the shadows of their room. "I know...because it's why _I'm_ _here…_"

Suddenly, black swam at the edges of her vision. As she tried to focus, she felt woozy...her head started spinning, and her sense of balance gave way.

"Lo...Loki…?" she said weakly as she struggled to stay conscious, but it was a losing battle.

Her eyes rolled back, and she blacked out.


End file.
